Special Training Camp
by Finni00
Summary: Penny and Kayla are sent to a special training camp. If they pass all the tests they will be full agents of HQ, if not they have to quit being agents. And if this isn't hard enough already, they are also assigned to partners. Penny's partner is no other than Talon. Will he help Penny or will he ruin her career forever and what about the attraction between the two of them?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys this is my first ff and I'm no native speaker of English so don't be too harsh on me ;)**

If you find any mistakes, feel free to tell me in the comments so I can improve my English. Thank you.

 **Now enjoy reading!**

"Gotta fly, see you Penny." Talon winks and takes off with his boots. "Uhhh Brain, please be honest. I'm never going to catch him, right?" Brain shrugs his shoulders and Penny drops her head in her hands. Inspector Gadget comes over and lays a hand on her shoulder "No need to be depressed Penny, at least we could reverse M.A.D's plans and Brain is on our side again." Brain face-palms and Penny looks at her uncle with furrowed brow. "Ahm Uncle Gadget you know that Brain never...ok never mind." Chief Quimby appears. "Congratulations Gadget, you once again saved the day." "That's right Chief, the good never loses. Come now Penny, we need to take Brain for a walk and then get a good nights sleep." Brain rolls his eyes and looks at Penny, but Penny is looking at her hands with a sad face. Brain walks over to her to see if she is alright. "Go go Gadget dog leash." A giant flower pot comes out of Gadgets hat and drops on the Chief. Brain runs over to help. "No Brain, bad dog, if you have to do your business than do it in the woods like a good dog." He points at a sign to a dog park. Penny goes to her Uncle. "Uncle Gadget I'm not feeling well. I will go home now. Can you take Brain for a walk?" "Yes of course Penny. You go home and rest well."

Penny slowly walks home with her head hanging low. She goes to her room and throws herself on her bed. She buries her head in her pillows. "Uhhh I thought being an HQ agent would help many people all over the world. But the only one I'm helping is Uncle Gadget not to blow up the entire city while fighting against M.A.D. I'm doing this for more than five years now and still in the end it's always him that earns all the glory." Frustrated Penny changes into her pajamas. She looks in the mirror, lightly slapping her cheeks. She forces herself to smile "Cheer up, Penny, tomorrow is a brand-new day, and anything can happen."

Penny goes to sleep, not yet knowing how right she is with her prediction that anything can happen.

Penny starts her day as usual and trains with holograms in the training room. She defeats the last M.A.D agent when there is an announcement. "Penny and Kayla to the Chief's office please." Penny takes her bag, wondering what the Chief wants from her and her best friend. In the hallway she meets Kayla. "Hey K any idea what the Chief wants from us?" "Sorry Pen no clue. I'm actually glad I even heard the announcement, 'cause I have this new mp3 player and it rocks." Penny giggles and knocks at the Chief's office. "Come in please."

They enter the room. "Kayla, Penny I want the two of you to go to a special training camp." Kayla groans. "But Chief we are like the best agents of HQ why do we need to go to a training camp, we've already been to soooo many." The Chief smiles "I guess you will like this one. If you pass all the tests and tasks at this camp I will promote both of you to full agents of HQ." Kayla looks at Penny and hugs her tight. Penny's eyes are wide open. "This is amazing Chief. Thank you so much for the opportunity." She jumps with joy. "But..." The girls stop jumping and look at the Chief. "But?" Penny asks. "This camp is no regular one-week camp but a six months project. Agents from all over the world and all sorts of agencies will be there. You have to give it your all to pass, because only the best twenty agents out of two hundred will get their diploma. If you fail I will have to kick you out of HQ. That's one of the camps rules, but I'm sure you'll make it. So what do you say?" Penny thinks of her situation in the past five years and how much she wanted change. "I'm more than ready Chief." Penny announced with a bright smile on her face. "What about you Kayla?" Kayla looks at Penny "Let's start packing girl!". "I'm counting on you girls. Make HQ proud. You will leave tomorrow morning."

Penny is packing her things. "Will you be OK without me Uncle Gadget?" she asks. "Don't worry Penny. I will take good care of Brain for you." Penny closes the zipper of her bag. "Good than it's time to say goodbye." She gets up and hugs her uncle. "See you in six months." She goes on her knees to hug Brain. "Please take care of Uncle Gadget for me and stop M.A.D. From whatever he is doing." Brain nods his head and looks at her in a way saying everything will be fine, concentrate on passing, I know you can do it. "Thanks Brain" she mutters. She picks up her bag and leaves. She gets on the bus waiting in front of her house. She waves Gadget and Brain until they disappear around a corner.

The bus transforms into a plane and they fly a couple of hours before they land in the middle of nowhere. The pilot drops them off and sets off again. "Wow, this is supposed to be it?" Kayla says looking around at all the trees and bushes. "Maybe this is a test." Penny says looking around for a secret entrance. She reaches a tree with a broken branch. "Kayla come over this looks weird." Kayla takes out a special pair of glasses and scans the tree. "You are right Pen this is no normal tree." She turns the broken branch one time and a secret passageway opens between the roots. The girls climb into it and slid down a giant slide. First everything is dark but then it becomes bright. Penny and Kayla squeeze their eyes shut. When they open it again they can't believe their eyes. They are sliding down a slide spun around a huge tree. Everywhere are small treehouses equipped with the newest technology. Some agents in training all are already unpacking in their new homes or training at a huge training ground with the latest hologram technology. "Wow this is amazing K!" Penny says happily. "Well that's what I call a cool hide-out." Kayla agrees.

The slide comes to an end and Kayla and Penny get up. They are greeted by and agent in his late 30s. "Welcome to our camp. You already passed the first test and found one of the secret passageways to our hideout. You are Penny and Kayla from HQ right?" "Yes sir that's right." Penny answers smiling. "Great. Here you have a map of the hideout. Your treehouses are numbers 134 and 135. Go and unpack. Now it's 4pm at 6pm you need to be at the dinning hall." Penny nods. Kayla looks at her phone. "Why isn't my phone working here?" "Because we are underground", a male voice answers and Kayla turns around. A young man around 23 stands behind them. "You have to be Ben from the Eagle Agency right?" the agent in his late 30s asks the young man. "That's correct sir." "Here is your map. Your treehouse is number 136. You can go with the girls. Until 6pm."

The agent turns around to greet other agents in training arriving from another passageway and Penny gathers her stuff. "Nice to meet you Ben, we are Penny and Kayla from HQ. Now let's go and check out our treehouses." Penny starts walking. Ben looks after her "Is she always so enthusiastic?" Kayla smiles at him. "Yeah. Well you get used to it. I just hope I can get used to no cell phone reception." Ben similes. "I think I can help you with that. But now let's hurry up or your friend leaves us behind.

"OK, this is number 134 and right next to it 136. Where is my treehouse?" Penny asks confused. "Maybe it's like a street and odd and even numbers are on opposite sides." Ben says looking at the map. "He's right." Kayla points at a treehouse on the opposite side of the tree. "Seems like the odd numbers are on the other side of the tree." Penny drops her shoulders. "I thought we have our treehouses right next to each other." Ben pats her shoulder. "It could be worse Penny. My brother told me last year his treehouse was surrounded by enemy agents." "Enemy agents, how is that even possible?" Penny asks. "Well all agents can participate in this camp. There is no distinction between good and evil. The only way we are judged is by our physical skills, how creative we can think and so on..." Ben explains. "Well I hope that no one from M.A.D is at the other side of the tree than." Penny says laughing and waves her hand. "I'll call as soon as I'm at my treehouse." Kayla and Ben wave back. "Take care girl." Kayla says before disappearing in her treehouse.

"Number 135. There!" Penny enters her treehouse. It looks small from the outside but is quite spacious from the inside. With a huge bed and closet, a little cooking area and a sofa with flat screen TV and other research and communication technology. Near the bed is a door to a little bathroom with a shower, toilet and sink. "Cool." Penny drops her bag in a corner and sits on the sofa. She pushes a button on the table in front of her and a hologram monitor opens. "Call treehouse 134" she says. A second later she sees Kayla laying on her bed. "Hey K.". Kayla jumps up. "Hey how are you doing?" "Good. The technology here is brilliant." Penny says looking around her. "How are the ones in treehouses 133 and 137?" Kayla asks. Penny shrugs her shoulders "Don't know haven't seen them yet." "I'm sure they'll be great. Ben just told me that at 6pm in the dining hall we will be getting assigned to work partners. We will train with them and have missions with them. I hope the two of us can be partners!" Penny looks shocked. "Aren't we going to be partners?" "Sorry Pen this is not sure. They will match you with whomever they think benefits most from the other…so maybe we are partners but maybe not." "OK, I see, let's hope for the best. I'm going to unpack now so see you at the dinning hall!" "Yeah. And be sure not to be late. Ben's brother told him they don't like it at all." Penny ends the call and unpacks her bag. After that she grabs an apple and her map and leaves for the dinning hall. When she arrives, there are already some agents in training sitting at the tables, a nervous atmosphere is hanging in the air.

Penny sits down at a table and eats her apple. She looks around and recognizes the emblems of many agencies from all over the world on the shirts and backpacks of the other students sitting there. Kayla and Ben come five minutes before 6pm and sit next to Penny. "Hey Pen. I'm glad we made it in time. Mr. No Problem over there said he knows the way." Kayla glares at him and Penny snickers. "You are on time, that's what counts." Ben looks at Penny in a thankful matter.

"Welcome at our training camp. You are the worlds best agents in training and we are here to see who has it in him or her to be one of the best agents. Twenty of you will pass and get their diploma the rest of you will have to quit being an agent. We are 186 agents in total. The rest didn't find a way to our hideout in the appropriate time. Before diner is served we will assign you to your partners, with whom you'll spend the next six months. Once I call your name come forward. When you have your partner, you can go and get your dinner together, training will start tomorrow."

Penny was so nervous she didn't listen to any of the names until "Kayla from HQ, your partner will be Ben form the Eagle Agency." Penny drops her jaw, her spirits low, she had hoped she would be Kayla's partner. But Kayla didn't seem to mind. She gets up and follows Ben to the buffet. Penny sits there while the hall is getting emptier "Penny from HQ with Talon from M.A.D". Penny gets up like hypnotized. This must be a joke. Talon is here and out of 185 possibilities he is her partner for the next six months and they have to work together? Penny reached the stage and turns around just to see Talon coming her way. A smug grin on his face. "Hey Penny" he says stopping in front of her. "Talon" is the only thing she gets out. "I'm hungry, let's go." Talon says shoving her to the buffet.


	2. Chapter 2 - The First Task

"B-b-but how is this possible?" she asks Talon utterly confused. "Well Uncle Claw sent me. He said something about infiltrating and learning about the enemy if I succeed and if not, I'm not a good enough agent to work for him. I only agreed to come because Uncle Claws mom broke her leg, and someone has to take care of her and that someone is definitely not me." Talon ends his monologue by brushing his fingers through his perfectly styled hair. Penny would never admit it but over the years he got even more handsome and now age 21 and close-up he was breathtaking. He wears his hair now in his natural color, black, his chest is broader, and he is wearing a three-day beard and even in loose fitting clothes Penny can see how muscular he is.

"What, are you going to stare at me for the next few hours or are we going to eat something?" he asks her teasingly. Penny quickly gets a plate and starts choosing food to hide her blush. When her plate is full she spots Ben and Kayla and walks over to them. "Are those seats taken?" she asks. "No Pen, sit down! By the way who is your partner?" "Me" Talon says sitting down next to Ben opposite Penny. Kayla drops her fork. "You got to be kidding!" "Yep, that's what I thought too." Penny mutters while eating her pasta. Ben looks confused. "That's Talon from M.A.D." Kayla explains to him. "He's Penny's archenemy." "Oh" Ben says his eyes round. "That's unlucky Penny." "Hey" Talon exclaims. "Sorry bro don't take it personal." Ben shrugs his shoulders apologetically and holds out his hand. "I'm Ben, nice to meet you." Talon shakes his hand.

"Ouch! Kayla why did you kick me?" Ben looks at her bewildered. "Well because he is our enemy of course." Kayla looks at him matter-of-factly. "Or do you usually greet your enemy with 'nice to meet you'?" Ben suppresses a laugh. "No, I don't but remember no one here is our enemy and he is Penny's partner so you two better get along too." Talon watches their bickering amused. "You know you two are a perfect fit. You both talk way too much." Kayla and Ben stop their conversation to look at him. Kayla furious, Ben smiling mildly. In the meantime, Penny has finished scooping down her food and gets up. "It was a long day. I'm going to my treehouse. See you tomorrow. Night." She dashes off without any of the others having time to reply. Talon looks after her. He slumps his shoulders "Does she hate it that much that I'm her partner?" he asked out loud without even noticing. Kayla and Ben exchange a glance. "Maybe you should go and see her in her treehouse, it's number…" Kayla stops Ben by covering his mouth with her hand. She glares at him. "Don't you dare tell our enemy her treehouse number." Talon gets up "Well whatever, I'm going too. See you." He lightly waves his hand and leaves the dining hall.

Penny sits on the sofa in her treehouse watching TV. It's already dark outside so she changed into her pajamas, a red hoodie and dark shorts. She gets up and takes out a mug and milk when there is a knock on the door. "Penny? I know you are in there. Please I'd like to talk to you." Talon's voice is muffled through the door. Penny signs, puts the cup down and opens the door. "Come in" she says stepping away from the door. Penny returns to her mug. "Would you like to have a hot chocolate too?" she asks him, holding up the milk. "Ahm yes please" Talon smiles at her shyly and sits down on the couch. Penny prepares the hot chocolate and puts the cups down on the table in front of the sofa. She turns off the TV and sits down opposite Talon. "So, Kayla told you my treehouse number?" "No, I found out all by myself." Talon says self-confident. Penny looks at him eyes round "But how? It's impossible to hack other treehouses." Talon looks at her with raised eyebrows. "Not that I've tried" Penny mutters into her mug. Talon smirks "Of course you didn't. But I'm just the better programmer, I was able to hack the treehouses." He adds casually. Penny looks at him with contracted brows. She realizes him wearing a leisure suit. She slowly starts speaking "You would never go out in a leisure suit and not perfectly styled." She points at his tousled hair. She gets up and walks to her window. In treehouse 133 is light and she sees a girl standing there, waving at her. Penny waves back. She then looks at treehouse 137. It's dark. "Bingo." She says to herself and turns around to look at Talon. "Are you admiring your amazing partner with the incredible hacking skills?" Talon wiggles his eyebrows. "You are definitely not better at programming than me and you live in treehouse 137." Talon's smile falters. "So, I'm right?" Talon stares at the mug in his hands, his ears slightly pink from embarrassment. "I'll take that as a yes."

Talon slowly looks up again. "By the way nice pajamas Penny." Now it's Penny's turn to blush, she glares at him. "So, Talon what do you want?" she asks slightly annoyed. Talon takes a sip of the hot chocolate. "Wow, it's delicious." He exclaims surprised. Penny takes the mug from his hands. "Talon why are you here?" she asks again now angry "Stop playing with me." "OK. OK. I'll tell you," Talon tries to appease Penny by raising his hands in a defensive manner. He hesitantly starts to speak "You, you just left earlier after dinner, without telling me anything. And I, I was wondering if you hate it that much to be my partner?" Penny looks at him with sad eyes.

"It's complicated. We are archenemies. You are supposed to know as little about me as possible or else you can use it to my disadvantage." Penny looks away from Talon and continues "You could ruin my entire career and Kayla's too."

Talon gets up, his insecure expression from earlier replaced by a teasing smirk. "And you actually think I would do that and spoil all the fun we are having?" Penny looks up due to his teasing tone just to back away because Talon's face is just inches away from hers. He stretches out his hand and takes his mug back from Penny. He empties it within a few gulps. "Goodness Penny, it's delicious." He puts the mug in the sink. "I glad you like me and are just too committed to HQ to actually tell me. See you tomorrow Penny." He flashes a smile, turns around and leaves the treehouse. Penny looks after him motionless with wide eyes and flushed cheeks.

 **The next day in the training hall**

"Penny, Talon it's your turn. You need to hit all the targets before they hit you." an male instructor tells them. They stand in front of a separate room in the training hall. "Once you are in, I'll activate a random holographic environment with random targets." "Ha, that's too easy" Talon says while posing with his paintball gun. The instructor smiles. "If you think so, we'll make it more difficult."

Several minutes later Penny and Talon are tied back to back in the middle of the training room with their weapons out of reach. The holographic projection starts, and they are in the middle of a forest. "Are you happy now?" Penny hisses. "Well I'd rather like to be tied to you face to face but you can't have everything I guess." Talon teases. "Are you kidding me? Stop fooling around or else we won't complete this task successfully and then we are out of the camp." Penny closes her eyes, takes a few and opens them again. She then concentrates on her surroundings. "Penny what are you" "Shhh...I don't think our targets found us yet, so be quiet than we have more time." Penny looks around. "We could use this branch over there to cut the rope, then we can go get our weapons." "Whatever you say Penny" Talon says leaning forward, so Penny lands on his back. "Hey!" Penny shrieks. Talon snickers "I thought you told me to be quiet." "Yeah, but what are you doing?" Penny hisses. Talon starts walking. "Obviously getting to the tree, like you suggested." They arrive at the tree and he straightens so Penny is back on her own feet. "OK. Thank you" Penny says awkwardly. "Now we need to get the rope over that branch, the end is broken, so it should be sharp enough to cut the rope." "And we need to hurry" Talon says. Before Penny could ask why, he adds "Because our targets found us." Penny and Talon raise their hands behind their backs and forcefully push them down onto the broken branch. The rope gets caught and due to the force tears. "Duck!" Penny shouts and throws herself onto the floor. Talon does the same. "Where are our weapons?" she asks out of breath. Talon points behind him. "Somewhere over there." He ducks to avoid the next paint ball. "OK, I'll distract them, you get our paintball guns" Penny suggests cowering behind a tree. Talon shows her a thumbs up. "Hey over here!" Penny shouts while jumping out from behind the tree. Talon dashes off to grab their weapons. Penny runs through the trees, changing her direction as often as possible, so she won't get hit. Less and less targets seem to be after her, so she takes the risk and looks back. Talon looks at her smiling and blowing the gun barrel of his paintball gun, her gun hanging around his shoulder. "Seems like they disappear after you hit them." his eyes sparkling with amusement. Penny shakes her head smiling. "You sure like to show off but good work. I just wonder why the holographic projection is still on, if we've defeated all the targets it's supposed to end." Just after finishing the sentence Penny sees a target in a tree. "My turn" she shouts happily while running towards Talon. She takes her gun from his shoulder and shoots the target sitting high up between the leaves. Talon smiles at her excited expression. "Still not over" he mutters and looks around the forest. He spots a flying paint ball nearly on Penny's back. He jumps and knocks Penny over landing on top of her. The paint pall marking a nearby tree. "You OK?" Talon asks worried as he straightens up in order not to crush Penny. Penny looks past him then she suddenly pulls him on her again. "Stay still", she whispers aiming her weapon to the trees. She shoots, and the projection starts to dissolve. "Mission successfully completed." an automatic voice announces.

"Ahm Talon you can get off me now" Penny says. Suddenly realizing in what kind of position they are she starts to blush. Talon stumbles to his feet awkwardly, he is blushing too. "Sorry." He scratches his head. "Oh no my hair. It's ruined." he looks around panicking. Penny starts laughing. "I can lend you my jacket, it has a hood. Oh, and next time keep your mouth shut, I'd rather have some easy tasks to warm up. I'm sure they'll get harder after a while." She takes off her jacket and throws it to Talon. "See you at lunch" she says while opening the door and stepping out of the separate training room.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Ranking

**Thank you for your advice with the paragraphs! It's helpful to know what I can improve to make it easier for you to read the story. So, thanks again.**

 **I tried to make shorter paragraphs in this chapter, especially when there is a conversation. If you like, you can once again tell me what I can improve and if the paragraphs are better that way.**

 **Now enjoy reading!**

Penny, Kayla and Ben are sitting in the dinning hall, enjoying their lunch.

"So, Pen, how was your first target practice with Talon?" Kayla asks.

"Good I guess. We at least successfully completed it." Penny smiles at Kayla. "What about yours?"

"Easy" Kayla says smiling at Ben. "He is amazing with the paintball gun." Ben smiles happily at the compliment. He then turns to face Penny.

"Why did you say you 'at least' completed it successfully? What I heard from Kayla, training at HQ is way harder than having a gun and shooting at targets." He titles his head in confusion.

Penny rolls her eyes. "Well thanks to Talon's big mouth, we were tied back to back with our weapons out of reach. We had to free ourselves first without getting hit by the targets before we do so. Talon just…"

"Talking about how amazing I am?" Talon asks while squeezing himself between Ben and another male agent from the Eagle Agency.

"Did it take you that long to fix your hair?" Penny asks instead of replying, forcing herself not to break into laughter.

Talon looks at her slightly offended. He carefully brushes through his hair. "Looking that good requires a lot of work. Not all of us like to wear our hair as short as Ben." he says pointing at Ben's 3mm short blonde hair.

"It's uncomplicated that way" Ben says shrugging his shoulders.

"See, I told you it's a lot of work" Talon says triumphing, smirking at Penny.

"And what do you think how much work it is to have long hair? Like a girl?" Kayla says looking at Talon like she wants to pick a fight.

"OK. That's enough talk about hair." Penny states firmly. "Does anyone know what the next task will be?"

Just when Penny finishes her question the instructor who welcomed them the day before gets in front of the buffet and starts speaking into a microphone.

"May I have your attention please?" His voice boomed through the dining hall. Everyone falls silent at once, looking at him.

"Thank you. I am here to announce a couple of things for the following week. First of all, congratulations all of you passed the first task." A round of applause starts.

The instructor holds up his hand and the hall falls quiet again. "A list with the results is available in the training hall now. All your results will be summed up there and every month the pair with the lowest ranking will have to leave the camp."

A girl about Penny's age with red hair raises her hand.

"Yes?" the instructor calls her.

The girl rises to her feet. "I heard from other agents who were here last year that every month there is a chance to improve your ranking with a special mission?"

"That's correct. At the end of every week there is a special mission. It's a field mission in the surroundings of the training camp. Every pair can volunteer to go on such a mission. If you succeed your final ranking will rise. With the special missions you can raise your ranking a maximum of four ranks per month."

The instructor looks around the hall to see if there are any more questions. He then continues.

"The rest of the week will be target practice like today, only the locations will change, and the difficulty will increase. Use your free time to prepare for special missions. Familiarize with the technical equipment in your treehouses, train with different weapons or get to know your partner better to see if you can help them with their weaknesses."

He looks at the clock behind him.

"Dinner will be ready at six. Those of you who want to participate in the special mission can come to me after dinner every day. But let me remind you once again. If you fail the special mission, it's just like you failed a regular task and you must leave the camp. That's all for today. Thank you."

After he left, chatter starts to fill the hall once again.

"Come on Ben. I'd like to see our results" Kayla says getting up, carrying her empty tray.

"Yeah, and on the way, I can tell you about the special move my brother taught me." He replied, also taking his tray and getting up."

Kayla walks over to him, then turning around.

"Bye Pen, we talk later. Call me when you are back at your treehouse, so I can come over."

Penny nods and continues eating. Talon looks at her confused.

"Don't you want to know our ranking?" he asks.

"I guess it won't be too good." Penny says shrugging her shoulders.

"What? Why? We were brilliant…I mean I was brilliant and you were not too bad either." Penny looks at him with raised eyebrows a smile playing around the corner of her mouth.

"Oh, forget it!" Talon exclaims, shoving a piece of omelet in his mouth.

"I heard the rating for the first task is based on time. We wasted a lot of it trying to free ourselves." Penny explains nonetheless. "We can go over after we've finished and look whether I'm right, OK?"

Talon nods and keeps eating in silence.

After they finished, they walk over to the training hall. Penny feels a little odd because Talon hasn't talked to her since she told him about the rating. He looks deep in thought, so Penny decides to stay quiet as well. When they arrive at the training hall there is a huge chaos of junior agents shoving and boxing their way through to see the ranking list.

"Uhhh, this will take forever for us to get through." Penny mutters. She turns to Talon and waves her hand in front of his face.

"Talon? Hey! Talon?" He blinks several times and stares at the crowd in front of him.

"What are they doing?" he asks.

"Looking at their results, I would say." Penny answers him, slightly worried.

Talon looks at her as if to say 'are you stupid?'. "That's not what I meant. I mean why are they queuing when you can get the results much faster."

Penny looks at him confused. Talon smirks and takes off with his boots, landing in front of the list, taking a picture with his phone, flying back and landing in front of Penny.

"Ta-da!" he says bowing lightly. Penny shakes her head laughing.

"That's not fair. No one has such boots" she scolds him.

"Well, it would not be so funny if it was fair. And don't complain or next time you can wait in the queue." he says while looking at the picture he took.

"I was right." Penny says pointing at his phone. "Ranking 180."

"You got to be kidding me!" Talon exclaims angry.

"Just don't brag next time and it won't be a problem." Penny says, looking at Talon in a 'I told you so' kind of way.

To smooth him she adds "And if you'd like we can go to one of those special missions. I'm quiet interested in what they are. I'm sure we'll be on top of the list in no time."

"OK" Talon says. "Now I gotta go. I need to take care of something." He waves at Penny and flies away.

Penny returns to her tree house, still wondering what is wrong with Talon. She grabs an apple from a bowl in her kitchen and calls Kayla.

"Hey Pen, are you back?" her friend asks.

"Yep, you can come over now or should I come?" Penny asks while biting into her apple.

"No I'll come. See you in five." Kayla says, ending the call.

A few minutes later Kayla and Penny sit on the sofa, talking about their rankings.

"We are ranking 15." Kayla happily says. "Ben is like the best partner I could have wished for." She looks at Penny "Except you, I mean."

Penny smiles "It's OK. I'm happy for you." She says hugging her friend. "Well Talon and I are ranking..."

"...180, I know. I saw it. He is such an idiot. It's all his fault." Kayla states.

"He is not that bad, give him a chance." Penny says, surprised herself, that she is defending Talon.

Kayla raises her eyebrows, examining Penny's face.

"You like him" she says watching Penny's reaction. Penny looks away.

"No I don't! He is my archenemy and..." Penny tries to argue.

"...and he got more handsome over the years, he is clever and funny." Kayla proceeds her sentence. Penny blushes and Kayla smiles triumphantly.

"OK, well maybe a little." Penny admits. "But what about Ben?" she changes the subject.

"What about him? Kayla asks with pink cheeks.

"Nothing. Your face tells me all I need to know." Penny teases.

"You know you're going to pay for this comment, right?" Kayla says lunging forward, tickling Penny."

Penny shrieks and laughs. She grabs a pillow and they start a pillow fight.

Half an hour later they are exhausted, laying on the sofa, both still panting, a smile on their faces.

"So are you going to participate in a special mission?" Kayla asks.

"Yes, we'd like to know what those missions are about. I guess it will be fun and a few extra points won't hurt either. What about you?"

"We decided to work on our weapon and programming skills the next weeks, so if it is not absolutely necessary we won't participate this month." Kayla answers.

She gets up and prepares a cup of tea for Penny and herself.

"You know it's nice to be here with you. A friend you can talk to. We hadn't had much missions together at HQ the last couple of months." Penny says.

"Yeah, I think so too. We are going to have a great time here. And not just the two of us." She looks at Penny suggestive.

"Well about him" Penny says knowing what the look on Kayla's face means. "Talon has been acting strange today after lunch. I don't know what's wrong with him."

"What about you go see him after diner? You are partners after all, you shouldn't keep secrets for as long as you are here." Kayla suggests.

"I think you are right. I go over to his treehouse after diner. Than he can give me back my jacket as well." Penny says, looking relieved.

Kayla looks at her with furrowed brow. "Why does he have your jacked?" She asks confused.

"Don't ask." Penny says laughing. "It has something to do with his hair."

Kayla starts laughing too. "He really has a thing with his hair."

The girls talk and laugh together for a few more hours and go to dinner together.

After dinner Penny goes straight to Talon's treehouse. He didn't attend diner and Penny was slightly worried. She knocks at his door but nothing happens. She knocks again and presses her ear against the door. There was no sign of him being in his treehouse, the lights are off.

Penny turns to leave but decides against it. Maybe she could find a clue to where Talon is in his treehouse. She knows it is against the rules to enter a treehouse without permission but she wants to know where he is, so she ignores her bad conscience and hacks the keypad of his treehouse.

The door opens slowly and Penny slips inside. She turns on the lights. She had expected it to look messy but everything was tidy and at its place. She checks the table in front of the sofa, the kitchen and the nightstand but can't find any clues to where Talon is. Penny signs.

"What am I even doing here?" she asks herself.

"I've been wondering the same thing." Talon says, arms crossed, standing in the door to his treehouse.

Penny flinches and turns around. "Talon!"


	4. Chapter 4 - The Apology

**Sorry if the formatting, especially with the paragraphs, changes every chapter, but I'm trying to find a good way so it's easy to read. It would help to get more feedback. Thank you!**

"I-I'm so s-sorry," Penny stutters, flushing bright red.

"I, I mean you, you weren't there at diner and you behaved odd and I thought I might find a clue to…" Penny stops mid-sentence and lowers her head in embarrassment.

Talon closes the door and walks towards her, shaking his head "Penny, Penny, Penny," he mutters, wearing a poker face. He stops right in front of her. They are so close Penny can feel him breathing.

Out of reflex she wants to step back but Talon grabs her shoulders to hold her back. He then slowly trails his right hand up the back of her neck and along her jaw to lift her chin. "Look at me," he whispers softly.

Penny slowly looks up, just to see Talon smirking.

"I know you had it in you," he smiles triumphantly. "You're quite reckless for someone who says they always follow the rules."

He starts laughing at Penny's dumbfounded expression and steps back from her. "You're such an idiot," Penny says lightly boxing him to cover up how confused she is by his earlier closeness.

Talon walks over to his kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee. "Want some?" he asks. Penny shakes her head. "I don't like coffee. It's bitter," she explains, making a face as if remembering the taste.

Talon sips a bit of coffee, his eyes fixed on Penny. "So, you are here because I behaved odd?" he asks, raising one eyebrow. Penny once again looks down wrestling with her hands.

"Please sit down, it's weird if you're standing around like this," Talon interrupts before she could say anything.

Penny drops herself on the sofa, Talon sits down next to her looking at her attentive.

Penny slowly starts to speak "After the ranking you were lost in thought and then you suddenly disappeared, and Kayla thought we shouldn't have any secrets as long as we are partners. And I agree with her. Yesterday I told you that you shouldn't know too much about me, but I realized that we can't work as partners if we know nothing about each other. So, I wanted to apologize and help you in case you have trouble with something." Penny shyly smiles at Talon who looks taken aback.

"I didn't think you would apologize, you have no reason to…" Talon stops mid-sentence. He gets up and walks over to his nightstand. He pulls out a small package, walks back to the sofa and hands it to Penny.

"What's that?" Penny asks curious. "Just open it," Talon says with a light smile.

Penny unwraps the small parcel. "Wow Talon, it's beautiful." Penny takes out a silver bracelet with a little red stone. "Thank you, but why do you give me this bracelet?"

Talon scratches the back of his head.

"Well it's an apology. You were right. It's my fault our ranking is so low. I should sometimes just be quiet. Uncle Claw told me often enough, but I guess I never was a good listener. And when I was quiet after lunch I thought of a way to make it up to you. So, I hope you accept this as an apology." Talon takes his cup, sits down on the sofa again and takes a few gulps.

Penny looks at him without saying a word. Talon puts down his cup. "It's no normal bracelet, I made it myself, it's a special communication bracelet. This way we can always communicate with each other no matter where we are. You just need to push the red stone and you call me. It is a save connection and only works between your bracelet and my bracelet cuff."

Penny is still looking at Talon, too stunned to answer. "You don't have to use it if you don't like it. I just thought it could come in handy with the special missions or if we are looking for each other." Because Penny is still quiet, Talon drops his head and turns away. He didn't see Penny putting on the bracelet.

"You can leave it here or keep it whatever…" he starts his sentence.

"Hey" Penny interrupts and moves over to Talon, touching his shoulder. Surprised he looks up. "It's wonderful and I love it. I just didn't think you were the type for apologies…Looks like I was wrong. I appreciate it so thank you." Penny leans in and kisses his cheek.

She then gets up and quickly walks over to the door. "Sorry again for coming here without permission, it won't happen again. Now I have a way to find you. She raises her arm with the bracelet around it. Good night." With those parting words she leaves his treehouse and returns to her own.

The rest of the week continues without any further incident. It's dinnertime and Penny, Kayla, Ben and Talon are in the dining hall eating.

"Your attention please." The voice of the male instructor from the target practice, his name is Jim, booms through the room.

"Ten pairs of agents enrolled for the special mission this week. Immediately after dinner you will follow me, and the special mission starts. You don't need anything else than what you already got with you. We will provide you with the rest. The mission is over the entire weekend, so say your goodbyes and if you're ready come to me." Jim sits down once again, and the hall soon is filled with excited chatter.

"Are you nervous?" Ben asks curiously.

"Nah, it's going to be easy." Talon says. Penny kicks him under the table.

"What did we agree on about keeping your big mouth shot?" she asks him sweetly.

"I should be quiet or else our task may be more difficult, I know, I know," Talon grumbles.

"Exactly," Penny flashes a smile.

"I'm super curious what this task is about, it's just a shame you won't be doing the special mission as well." Penny says turning to Kayla.

"Not this week Pen, maybe next. But we made a lot of progress with our weapons. I'm quite good with the paintball gun myself now." Kayla says proudly. Penny smiles at her and hugs her.

"Talon are you ready?" she asks him while getting up.

"Sure, let's go." He enthusiastically replies.

"Good luck!" Ben and Kayla say in unison. They look at each other and start to laugh. "I think it's no problem for you to kill the time while we're gone." Penny says amused. "Thanks, and take care, see you on Monday."

Penny and Talon walk to the front waving.

Thirty minutes later, all twenty agents participating in the special mission are in a small separate room next to the dining hall. Most of the teams have low rankings and want to improve, just three other teams are there to check out what the special missions are about like Penny and Talon. Jim comes into the room and all look at him expectantly.

"Welcome to the first special mission of this camp. This week's task is to find a missing agent represented by a dummy." A murmur spreads through the junior agents.

"Be quiet please. You will have eighty-four hours to complete this task. Each group must find their own dummy. The task will take place under real conditions, this means the missing agent has a background and went missing on one of his or her missions. You must find clues to there whereabouts by going through files, talking to people they were close with, who are represented by other instructors of the camp, etc."

A young man raises his hand. "Is time the only thing taken to account concerning the ranking?" he asks.

"No, also your creativity, partner work and survival skills will be taken to account." Jim answers.

"Are there any more questions?" he asks.

The young man raises his hand again. "Will all of us start from the same position?"

"Again no, all of you have to search in the same area but it's very wide and so highly unlikely you meet each other. If you do nonetheless you can decide whether you want to help each other and work together or not." Jim explains.

"Now the introduction time is up. Each of you grab the backpack with your name on it and change into the clothes over there." He points to the right corner where backpacks and piles of clothes are lined up.

"The boys can change in the next room, the girls can stay here. Hurry up, we will leave in ten minutes." With these words he leaves the room.

Ten minutes later, everyone has changed and wears their backpack.

"Winter clothes, I guess we're going to the mountains." Talon says.

"Yeah, I think so too. I checked the backpack and climbing gear is inside." Penny agrees.

"This is going to be so much fun." Talon says, hopping up and down with excitement.

"You're like a little kid, who gets his favorite toy," Penny teases smiling. "I am not." Talon states. "Or chocolate." Penny adds, now chuckling.

Their little exchange gets interrupted by Jim "Talon, Penny, your ride has arrived. Good luck and hopefully we will see each other on Monday."

Talon and Penny leave to room and board the helicopter waiting for them. The time they take off, they are greeted by a female agent.

"Junior agents Penny and Talon, this is an important mission to find the missing agent Ann Silver, she went missing on an undercover operation. Her last known location is a small hut, near this lake." The agent points at a map.

"We will now take you to her mission control center. From there you can gather information and start your search. Because of the rough terrain we can't land with the helicopter. You will have to jump with parachutes. Good luck and bring her back safely."

She hands them the parachutes.

"OK. Let's go." Penny says. "I think this is a good spot to jump." She points at a wide snowy area. Talon nods. They once again check their parachutes and then jump.

Their parachutes open without problem and they glide down slowly. "We should land over there!" Penny screams pointing at a clear spot right of them. Talon raises his thumb to signal his understanding and agreement.

Penny lands smoothly on the spot she planned. She looks for Talon who jumped after her just to see him crash landing into a nearby tree. She takes of her parachute and takes out her snowshoes. She walks over to the tree as quickly as possible. "Are you OK?" she shouts so he can hear her. He does not answer so she shouts again "Talon? Talon, can you hear me?"

She suddenly feels something warm around her wrist and shoves back her sleeve. The little red stone on the bracelet Talon made her is blinking. She pushes it and a picture of Talon appears.

"Silly, you don't need to shout. We can use our bracelets," he tells her smiling.

Penny signs relived. "I thought you did this before?" she asks him confused. "Than why the crash-landing?"

"Well I kind of always had my boots, so no need for parachutes." He shrugs his shoulders and takes of his parachute.

"It would be super easy to get down this tree with my boots, but no, they need to force me to wear those ugly snowshoes."

"I'm sorry they are not your style but hurry and get down here, it's freezing." Penny says rolling her eyes.

"Why do you want me to hug you, so you get warm?" Talon asks wiggling his eyebrows, while starting to climb down.

"Ugh!" is Penny's only reply before she ends the call.


	5. Chapter 5 - The Special Mission

After a few minutes Talon is back on the ground. "What now?" he asks.

"The mission control center is over there. I suggest we check in, gather information and stay the night, tomorrow we can start the search." Penny says.

"Fine with me." Talon says, testing his new boots and the best way to walk without sinking into the deep snow. "We should probably ask them for ski," he says trying to get out of the snow he just sunk into. Penny giggles.

"You just have to walk light like a feather." She starts walking without sinking. "Hey that's unfair!" Talon exclaims. "You are lighter than me." After he got out he starts imitating Penny's movements. "This looks stupid," he complains after several steps.

"Maybe but keep up your concentration or else…" with her next step Penny sinks into the snow. "You will sink into the deep snow." She ends her sentence frustrated. She is now waist deep in snow.

Talon laughs "OK. I get your point." He walks over to Penny, who struggles to get out of the snow, and offers her a hand. "Let me help you."

"No thank you," Penny answers through clenched teeth, trying to push herself out of the snow.

"Come on, accepting help is not that bad. We are a team, remember?"

"Ugh, fine," she indulges and grabs his offered hand.

"Ready?" he asks. "One, two, three…" he pulls with all his might, the snow under his feet gives way and he sinks next to Penny.

"Now that worked well," Penny snorts, fighting back tears of laughter, while regarding Talon's shocked face. Talon soon joins in her laughter.

"Enough" he tries to stop their laughter, holding his stomach. "We need to get out or we'll freeze to death."

"I know, I know" Penny tries hard not to laugh again. "OK. Deep breath."

Talon is looking at their surroundings. "I saw a rope in our backpacks. It should be long enough to throw it to the tree over there." He points at a nearby tree with low branches.

"I think I can manage to throw it over the lower part, than we can use it to pull ourselves out." He tries reaching his backpack without success. "Or we can just say here and wait until the snow is melting," he suggests sarcastically.

"Or I can help you," Penny says, trying her best to reach the rope in his backpack, which proves difficult because she can't really turn around in the snow.

"It won't work that way," she states after several tries.

"You could hug me," Talon suggests.

"Talon, seriously?" Penny exclaims. "Stop teasing and start thinking of a proper way."

"I am," Talon says honestly. Penny looks at him confused. They are standing next to each other not exactly side to side but rather slightly facing each other.

"When you hug me, you should be able to pull out the rope from my backpack," he explains.

Penny realizes that he is right and blushes because of her false assumptions. "OK." She hugs him, opens his backpack and pulls out the rope, Talon gets her rope just in case.

Talon knots a hock to the rope. "That should do the trick," he says proudly holding up the rope.

"Give it a shot." Penny says smiling. Talon throws, and the hock reaches one of the lower branches. Slowly Talon pulls back the rope and the hook gets stuck between the branches. "Yeah!" he exclaims happily. "Now who's the best?" he asks Penny.

"Seriously?" Penny teases. "Who is the one who got us in this mess in the first place?" Talon starts pouting at her comment. Penny realizes it and the corners of her mouth start twitching.

"What?" Talon asks upset.

"You did a great job Talon, Thanks." Penny answers truthfully. "Now let's get out of here," she says, taking the rope from his hands and starts pulling herself out of the snow.

About thirty minutes later they arrive at the mission control center and report for duty. "Agents Penny and Talon, we are here to find the missing agent Ann Silver."

"Welcome Agents." An elderly woman greets them. "Please come inside and warm yourselves up."

Penny and Talon step inside. It looks quite different from what they imagined. Everywhere on the dark wooden floor are sofas and comfy chairs. A huge fireplace at one side of the room. All in all it looks more like a huge mountain hut than a mission control center. No one is wearing a uniform but casual clothes. Most of the people are gathered around a blackboard, writing something down, pinning up photos or talking to each other.

"Looks like we are in the last century," Talon comments amused.

"Where is all the technology?" Penny asks flabbergast.

The woman who welcomed them has stepped behind them and answers "We don't have technology here."

Penny and Talon turn around to face her. "What do you mean?" Penny asks slightly anxious.

"Well you can't expect to have perfect conditions to complete a mission. You just have to find a way without using technology." Penny gulps and Talon nods understanding. Penny frowns.

"Why are you so calm?" she asks him. "I'm screwed without technology. Technology is what I'm best at." She says depressed.

"First of all," Talon raises a finger "Uncle Claw sent me on missions in places where there is no technology and trust me you always find some kind of way. Secondly," he raises a second finger "our bracelets still work to communicate with each other when we are within a one-kilometer radius. They can form a connection without the internet. And lastly you are good at other things too." Talon walks towards the blackboard, taking of his jacket.

"Come on Penny. We need to ask for the information we need and then rest.

Penny hurries up to follow him, also taking of her jacket.

After talking to the other agents in the mission control center they found out that Ann Silver was working undercover as a mountain guide. She was supposed to keep an eye on a guy named Carlos who is stealing and smuggling diamonds and selling them in the mountains. She reported that there will be a huge sale the next day and after that sale she wanted to arrest Carlos and all other people involved. They lost contact before she could tell them where the sale would take place.

Penny and Talon decided to go to Ann Silvers last known location in the morning to look for more clues.

"I'm super tired." Penny announces. "Can we both get a room please?" Penny asks the woman who welcomed them, her name is Sara.

"Sure, follow me." Penny and Talon follow her through a small passageway. They walk down a long corridor with many doors. "All the agents who are here stay the night," Sara explains. "The last two rooms are for you. She opens one room and steps inside.

"What on earth happened here?" she exclaimed shocked. Penny and Talon rush into the room.

A huge amount of snow is piling up in the room. Sara walks around it.

"Oh no, one of the windows were open and it was snowing the entire day. I'm sorry you can't use this room. Let's hope the second room is unaffected. Or else I'm going to have a serious talk with the one who was in the rooms before."

Sara hurries out of the room. Talon and Penny look at each other with wide eyes.

"What a relive!" They here Sara from inside the next room. "You can use this room!" Penny and Talon follow Sara's voice to the next room.

It's a beautiful room with dark wooden floor, a small sofa with a table and a king-sized bed. Dark red curtains are at the windows. In the room it is warm and cozy.

"Over there is the bathroom." Sara points at a small door in the corner of the room.

"I'm really sorry, but we only have this room..." Sara looks at both of them.

"I'm going to sleep on one of the sofas near the fireplace in the main building, Penny can stay here." "OK. Great." Sara flashes both of them a smile. "Come with me young man and rest well Penny."

Before Penny could even react, Talon and Sara had already left the room. Penny felt kind of guilty. Talon possibly wouldn't be able to get much sleep in the main room. But what would be the option, to sleep with Talon in the same room and even the same bed?

Penny shakes her head confused and decides to take a shower.

After twenty minutes she is ready for bed and crawls under the covers. She thought of Talon and decides to call him. She presses the red stone on her bracelet. Talon answers almost immediately.

"What's up? Did something happen?" Talon asks.

"No, I," Penny hesitates.

"I wanted to see if you are alright." she admits.

Talon smiles warmly. "I'm fine." Penny hears voices in the background.

"Are you sure you can sleep over there?" she asks him concerned.

"Maybe a little," he answers honestly.

Penny looks deep in thought, after several moments she spoke up again.

"Talon don't get the wrong idea," she starts slowly. Talon raises his eyebrows in anticipation.

"Why don't we share this room?" she quickly ends her sentence before she could feel too embarrassed to even suggest it.

Talons eyes grow wide. "Why?" he asks.

"Because I feel bad, if I can rest here and you have to sleep in the main building where it is noisy. I think we both work better after a good night's rest." Penny states, slightly blushing.

"But only if you don't try something funny." Penny adds and now blushes madly.

Talon raises an eyebrow. "You seem to be sure," he states.

"Well yeah, I thought about it for a while. And I think it's the best option we have. So are you coming, or do you rather spend your night in the main building. And I'm not asking again." Penny says.

Talon smiles. "I'll be there in a sec." He ends the call and Penny takes a few deep breaths. "It's OK, it is the best option." she says to herself, trying to calm down.

A knock on the door lets Penny snap out of her thoughts. "Come in."

Talon opens the door and comes in with a blanket and pillow in his hand and his backpack on the back. He looks like he showered too, because his hair is still a little wet.

"You did take into account that I'm way too big for the sofa, didn't you?" He asks her serious. Penny nods.

"The bed should be big enough, so we won't get in each other's way." Penny mutters, looking down.

"Good." Talon smiles and throws his blanket and pillow on the bed. He puts his backpack next to hers and gets in the bed.

He looks at her. "Thank you," he says.

"For what?" she asks seriously surprised.

"For trusting me enough to let me sleep here."

"Sure." Penny says smiling. "Good night, Talon."

"Night," he says turning out the lights.


	6. Chapter 6 - Special Mission Day 2

**Sorry guys it took me so long to update, but I was sick and had a couple of exams. Nonetheless I hope you enjoy the next chapter!**

Penny falls asleep pretty quickly and Talon watches her with a smile on his face.

"Always playing tough but in the end you're just as vulnerable as we all are," he whispers softly.

A lose strand of Penny's hair falls into her eyes and Talon immediately reaches out to tuck it back behind her ear. Inches before he touches her, he hesitates.

After several seconds he carefully brushes her hair behind her ear. Penny subconsciously leans into the touch, a smile playing around the corners of her mouth. Talon freezes in shock but seeing her face so relaxed and smiling he slowly starts caressing her cheek.

"Sweet dreams," he whispers, lightly kissing her forehead.

Penny wakes up by the time the sun shines through the windows of their room. She feels something warm behind her and snuggles up to it, refusing to open her eyes. She is about to drift back to sleep when she hears faint laughter.

"For someone who told me not to try anything you certainly have bold moves, practically being all over me the whole night." Talon whispers in her ear.

Penny immediately shoots up, eyes wide open in shock and realization. Talon – she shared her room and her bed with Talon.

"I'm sure I stayed on my side of the bed!" she said defensively crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"You did not." Talon teases snickering. His eyes widen slightly, and his smile deepens "Nice pajamas by the way."

Penny looks down, just to realize the buttons of the shirt of her pajama came undone, now showing her lace underwear. Penny grips it, quickly covering herself.

Talon gets up and walks to Penny. He steps close to her and touches her pink cheek. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have teased you. But you don't need to cover yourself – you look stunning."

With these words he steps back, grabs his backpack and blanket and leaves the room.

Penny looks after him still clinging to her shirt, blushing madly. When she is about to be able to move again, Talon peeks his head back into the room.

"Oh, I'll be ready in half an hour, then we can go and complete our mission." he smiles and leaves for good.

Penny sighs exhausted and sits back down on the bed. What was he thinking? Well anyway they had a mission to take care off. After that she can deal with Talon and her racing heart whenever he is near.

Penny gets ready and heads to the main building. Like the day before it is bustling with activity. Talon is waiting for her in front of the blackboard, already in his winter jacket and trousers, a woolen hat on his head.

"Come on Penny. I already got each of us a pair of ski, grab something to eat and off we go. Time is running," he announced when she arrived in front of him.

Penny shyly smiles back and grabs an apple and a banana from a bowl nearby. Talon looks at her with raised eyebrows. "This is what you pick for breakfast?" He asks in disbelieve.

"Well you were right we don't have much time. I can eat later." Penny says shrugging her shoulders and biting in the apple.

Ten minutes later they are outside in the snow.

"Wow, it's beautiful. I wish we could stay and enjoy the view." Penny says looking over the snowy mountains glistening in the sun.

The new snow sparkles like diamonds and the dark green of the firs looks stunning. The weather is perfect, not a single cloud on the sky. Talon puts on his ski.

"The perfect weather for a ski trip I would say," he says happily. "Follow me, I know the way to the hut."

Penny smiles seeing Talon so excited. She puts on her ski. "Ready." she tells him. He smiles at her. "Let's go and find Agent Ann Silver," he says overly dramatic.

"You know that you are crazy right?" Penny asks laughing.

"Yeah, and you like it." Talon states smirking and slides over the edge down the first mountain.

At the bottom of the mountain Talon waits for Penny.

"Your skills are impressive," Penny admits. At her comment Talon starts smiling radiantly. He looks like a child who just got an enormous amount of sweets.

"I love skiing." Talon explains. "The missions Uncle Claw sent me to in the mountains were the best. The harshest conditions, but when I am on ski I feel free, like I could do whatever I want, be whoever I want to be…" Talon stops mid-sentence looking down and biting his lip.

Quickly he returns to a smile, not a genuine one but a fake smile he uses to cover up his true feelings.

Penny doesn't know when but within the last week she spent with him, she learned to tell the differences between his smiles. She doesn't want to push him further. "OK. Now let's see if you can keep up!" she shouts over her shoulder driving down the next part of their way.

Talon was the first to arrive at the mountain hut, Agent Silvers last known location.

"I told you I'm better," he teases Penny. "That was just luck," Penny insisted although she knows it wasn't.

Both take off their ski and step on the front porch of the hut. "The curtains are closed; no window or door seems to be damaged." Penny mutters to herself, analyzing the situation.

"The door is locked," Talon informs her trying to turn the doorknob. Penny steps next to him.

"Step aside please," she tells him while taking a small black case from her backpack. Talon steps aside and observes her work.

The black case contains lock picks. Penny takes out the right ones and with a few skilled moves, the door opens with a click.

Talon starts at her, his mouth open and lost for words.

"What?" Penny asks, putting the case back into her backpack.

Talon closes his mouth. "That," he gestures at Penny and the door "was hot. You are way better at braking into houses than I thought you would be. Penny, I can't help it we are a perfect match." He says in a dreamy voice.

"I, What, I mean…" Penny stutters, completely lost. Talon starts laughing and opens the door.

"The face you make is way too cute." Penny slaps him on the shoulder. "Shut up. You were just teasing me?" she says, making it sound way more like an upset question, than a statement.

Naturally Talon gets it. "Is this a question?" he asks pulling up one eyebrow.

"No!" Penny exclaims way too loud and fast. "Let's go inside."

"Woah. Looks like they didn't find what they were looking for. It's a mess in here." Talon says looking around. "Or they were just angry." Penny says.

The hut wasn't that big, one spacious room with kitchen, living room and dining table in one. In the back was a door, probably to the bed or bathroom. Every drawer was pulled out and broken plates and glasses, paper, pencils and pillows are spread all over the floor.

"It really looks like a kidnapping. This mission feels quite real, although it's just set up for us to practice." Penny says.

They decide to split up for the search for possible clues. After a while Talon comes to Penny. "Look what I found," he says holding up a piece of cloth.

"What's that?" Penny asks.

Talon shrugs his shoulders. "And where did you find it?"

Talon guides her through the door in the back, that indeed leads to a bedroom. At a coat stand he stops.

"It was right here," he says pointing to the floor.

Different from the other room, the bedroom looks untouched. Even the bed was neatly made. On the coat stand was a helmet used on building sides, next to it was a lamp one can attach to the helmet. Penny takes it, whipping dark dust from it.

"I might know where we need to go next. Did you see any mines on our way here?" she asks Talon.

"No, but we can look on our maps." He goes back to the main room to grab his backpack. He comes back with his map and spreads it on the bed.

"Ok, we are here." Talon points at a marked spot on the map. "Those symbols are mines."

He looks at Penny. "In the area are way too many to check all of them. We need to find other clues to which mine we need to go."

"I think in the other room are ripped maps, maybe one of them can help us." Penny suggests, and Talon agrees.

After an hour of collecting pieces and rearranging them over and over again, they finally got what looked like a map of a couple of mines a few kilometers away.

"Look, that's strange," Talon observes. "I don't think it belongs there."

Penny looks over his shoulder "Are you sure? It looks like it is part of the map."

"Yeah, but Uncle Claw let me draw a couple of maps for one of his plans and the symbols near this mine represent deciduous trees although in this area only conifers can grow due to the harsh climate. I don't know I have a weird feeling about this." Talon ends his explanation with an apologetic shrug of his shoulders.

"I think we should trust your gut." Penny says after thinking for a couple of seconds.

"Really?" Talon sounds surprised.

"Yes. I think your intuition is good and besides we don't have any other clues." Penny says, starting to check her backpack and getting ready to go.

Talon stops her. "I think the way is going to take a couple of hours and we shouldn't just walk in there when it's dark. It is best if we look for something to eat here, then report to the mission control and go find a place near the mines to spend the night. In the morning, we're hopefully going to finish our mission."

Penny agrees, and they start looking for something they can eat. In the end they find two cans with ravioli. Luckily the electricity in the hut still works, so they use the cooker to warm up their meal.

They eat in silence until Talon speaks up. "I hope we are right," he says.

Penny looks at him. "What do you mean?" she asks.

"Well if our theory is wrong, we won't have enough time to complete our mission and hence have to leave the camp." Talon explains, looking crushed.

"I think we are right. I mean I am the best junior agent of HQ and you are probably…"

"Probably?" Talon interrupts, slightly offended.

Smiling Penny continues "…the best M.A.D. agent. We solved problems worse than that. I think we must have faith in our skills." Penny finishes her ravioli.

"And it won't get us anywhere if we sit here and think about a negative outcome." Penny gets up and offers her hand to Talon. "Are you ready to rock this mission with me?" she asks. "And even if we fail, let's make this our best mission so far." She smiles at him.

"Yeah, you are right." Talon grabs her outstretched hand and let himself be pulled on his feet.

"First we call the mission control and then let's go!" he says enthusiastically.

Penny kisses him on the cheek. "That's what I wanted to hear."


	7. Chapter 7 - Special Mission Day 3

A couple of hours later they are on their ski, not far from the mines. The sun already started to set and it's getting darker by the minute.

"I think we should spend the night here," Talon says, looking around for a good spot to set up the tent.

"Don't you think it's best if we get closer to the mines?" Penny asks concerned.

"No, not if we don't want to be spotted." He pulls out the map of his backpack and points at a spot. "We are here, I would say we can rest in this mine. It's not too far away and it seems little enough, so no one will be working there at the moment.

Penny looks at Talon, his eyebrows are furrowed concentrated and decides he may be right.

"Fine," she agrees. After a short hesitation she adds "I think you've been in the mountains more often than me, so I should trust your judgment."

Talon folds the map and shoves it back into a side pocket of his backpack. "Uhhh, is someone admitting I'm better than her?" Talon teases.

Penny groans annoyed but heads in the direction Talon suggested. "That's exactly why I never compliment you, you jerk."

"Hey wait up!" Talon calls, going straight after her.

"So, this should do it," Penny mutters to herself. She just finished setting up her tent in the entrance of the mine Talon suggested they should stay in overnight.

"What about you?" she asks Talon, glancing over her shoulder to see if he finished setting up his tent.

Talon is leaning against a wall, watching Penny. "What are you doing?" she asks him.

"Nothing, obviously," he says getting away from the wall, throwing away a biscuit wrap.

"Yeah, I can see that. But why didn't you set up your tent and instead pollute the environment?" she asks annoyed.

Talon walks over to her and puts his arm around her shoulder. "Well I thought we already shared a bed, so it won't be a problem to share a tent," he states pulling Penny close.

"How considerate of you to come to this conclusion without me," Penny says sarcastically. She shoves Talon away. "At least pick up your biscuit wrap," she adds, while rolling her eyes.

"Are you awake?" Talon whispers after a while. They both lie in the tent next to each other, arms and hands lightly touching.

Penny nods, then remembers he can't see her. "Yes. What's up?" she asks, turning her head in his direction.

"I can't sleep," he says.

"And why is that? We're going to be fine and return to camp tomorrow," Penny says now fully turning to her side, facing Talon.

"I know we're going to make it. It's just that, I, well I, I am cold," he admits.

Penny giggles a little. "And what am I supposed to do now?" she asks.

"Well we could cuddle," Talon says. Penny can almost see the smirk on his face.

"Yeah sure, any other wishes?" she asks turning back on her back. "I'm warm by the way."

After her remark Talon stays quiet for a bit.

"Please?" he asks.

"No. What about a jacket?" Penny suggests.

Talon grabs his jacket and puts it on. He lays back down, turning around to find a good position to sleep.

After a while of rustling Penny speaks up "OK. Stop it," she states firmly.

"What?" Talon asks a little too innocent.

"Just get out of the jacket and come here. You win. I can't sleep with you rustling with your jacket the whole time." Penny says, trying to suppress her laughter and instead sound annoyed.

Talon quickly does as asked and puts his jacket next to his backpack.

"Now do you want to use one sleeping bag or do you prefer if we open it and use it as a blanket?" Talon asks.

"Ahm, I'd prefer a blanket." Penny says, happy that it is dark, and Talon can't see her blush.

Talon and Penny open their sleeping bags and spread them over them. Talon gets closer to Penny and pulls her near by the waist until her back touches his chest.

"Are you comfortable?" he asks, his breath tickling her ear.

Penny nods "Yeah," she mutters, trying to relax.

"Thank you," Talon softly whispers, lightly stroking Penny's arm.

Penny smiles "It's fine. Now sleep, we have to get up early."

Talon softly places a kiss on Penny's neck. "Good night."

Penny freezes but Talon says nothing more, his breathing soon becomes deep and even.

"You are crazy." Penny whispers, before relaxing once again and drifting off to sleep.

"Hey sleepyhead." Talon softly shakes Penny's shoulder. "It's already getting bright outside, we should pack up and get going."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," she mutters, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"Do we have something to eat?" Penny asks after getting back into her jacket and boots.

"Just an apple," Talon says throwing it to her. "You eat, I pack up the tent and sleeping bags."

Penny raises an eyebrow "Why so friendly and helpful?" she asks.

"No particular reason." Talon says, smiling.

Penny shrugs her shoulders and starts eating her apple.

About an hour later they reach the mine, where they think agent Silver is being held. They hide behind a couple of large fir trees that have especially many low branches. Talon cowers down, he points at the huge entrance of the dark mine.

"Look, there are footprints and over there is a snowmobile" Talon whispers.

"Yeah, but maybe it belongs to some workers." Penny says not sure herself.

"We need to get a closer look." Talon whispers.

He thinks for a couple of seconds.

"I have an idea," Penny interrupts his train of thoughts.

"What is it?" Talon asks.

"We leave our ski and backpacks here, we only take the most necessary things with us. The fir trees are close enough, so we can get to the entrance of the mine without being noticed. If agent Silver is here or better if the dummy is here it should be in the mine somewhere." Penny explains.

"Well I guess this idea is better than nothing, at least we are going to get to the entrance of the mine without being spotted." Talon sighs.

Both put their backpacks and ski away and make sure the branches cover them up. Talon has a rope tied around his body, a torch in his jacket and a knife in his belt. Penny has a bottle of water and also a rope and knife with her.

"I hope this will do it." She nods, and Talon starts moving.

Carefully not to make a sound or sink into the snow they walk behind the fir branches. They are almost at the entrance when they hear a voice and see two men walking to the entrance from the other side.

"Hey boss, I found a biscuit wrap in a mine not far from here, someone is here. I bet they want to see our special guest." The smaller man says.

Penny looks at Talon "I told you to pick up that biscuit wrap," she hisses in a quiet voice.

Talon shrugs his shoulders "I would say it's too late for an apology now, we have to get to terms with the circumstances."

Penny rolls her eyes but keeps quiet.

They observe the two men but are now too far away to hear anything else from their conversation.

"At least we know she is here now." Penny says. Talon keeps quiet, staring at the two men.

"I might have an idea how we can get past them, but I need your bracelet."

Penny looks down on her arm, she doesn't want to admit it, but she really likes the bracelet and found it sweet Talon made it for her as an apology. Talon notices her hesitation.

"Look we need to get this mission over with, we need to get the dummy and bring it back to the mission control center in time or else the camp is over for us." he says matter of factly.

Penny nods stiff, surprised by his harsh words and hands him her bracelet.

"Wait here," Talon says, taking the bracelet and heading in the opposite direction from the entrance of the mine.

After a while he returns. "What did you do?" Penny asks him.

"Just sit back and enjoy the show," Talon says, pressing some buttons on his own bracelet – nothing happens.

"What am I supposed to see?" Penny asks. "Shhh," Talon silences her by covering her mouth with his hand. Penny struggles a little until she hears crunching snow. She freezes on the spot.

Talon gets behind her, not taking his hand off her mouth. He whispers into her ear "Relax, this is part of the plan. Get ready to run." Penny tries to relax, and Talon slowly takes his hand off her mouth, taking her hand instead.

Penny winces when she hears a branch crack probably a few fir trees away. She tries to get away from the noise as fast as possible, but Talon holds her back, his eyes fixed on the two men at the entrance of the mine.

Penny watches them as well, they are still talking to each other. Talon once again presses some buttons on his bracelet. After a short while there was a loud crack next to Penny, so loud the two men noticed and start getting closer.

Slowly Talon pulls Penny with him, still hiding behind the branches, getting closer and closer to the entrance. The two men are now near enough so Penny and Talon can understand them again.

"I swear I heard something over there. Let's better take a look before our next costumer comes."

"Yeah but we need to hurry," was the harsh reply.

Another sound of crunching snow was coming from the place Talon and Penny where standing at a few moments ago. The two men walk past Penny and Talon towards the sound.

"On three," Talon whispers in Penny's ear. "One, two, three!" He dashes out of the trees, pulling Penny behind him and running at full speed towards the entrance of the mine.

After a short moment of surprise, the two men chase after them.

"We need to hide as soon as we're in!" Talon screams over his shoulder, so Penny can hear him.

Penny and Talon enter the mine, they have about fifteen seconds before the other two men will be there. Penny looks around frantically.

"There is no place to hide, we need to fight, go to one side of the entrance I'll go to the other." Penny says, blocking all her emotions and mentally preparing for the fight.

Talon does as asked.

Just a moment after they are in position, the two men barge in the mine. Without hesitation Penny attacks the one on her side, the smaller on. Talon immediately leaps out for the boss. Because of the surprise both men are in shock and Penny easily knocks her opponent out. She ties his arms and legs together, so he won't bother her any further. She looks over to Talon. He manages to dodge several attacks but fails to dodge a punch in the belly. Talon groans and sinks to the ground.

As fast as possible Penny runs over, kicking away the feet of the man. He was so focused on Talon, that he loses balance and tumbles forward. Penny jumps on his back and with a loud thud the man falls to the ground, face first.

During Penny's fight, Talon managed to get in a sitting position, holding his belly. He unties the rope around himself and tosses it to Penny. Penny ties together the arms and legs of the man before she gets off him and kneels next to Talon.

"Are you alright?" she asks concerned.

"I'm fine," he says through clenched teeth.

Penny helps him get up.

"Now let's find that stupid dummy and get out of here," Talon grumbles, stroking over his belly.

Penny smiles a tiny bit "If you are well enough to complain, it can't be too bad." She says relieved.

"But you should let someone look on your belly later to be sure it's not seriously injured."

"I'm gladly going to show you my abs later." Talon says, a smirk spreading on his face.

"You are incorrigible," Penny complains, rolling her eyes.

"Let's hurry up and get this mission done." She says starting to walk deeper into the mine.


	8. Chapter 8 - The Kiss

After a while of silently walking Talon speaks up "You know, mines usually have an emergency room for the workers in case an accident happens. I think we should look after one of those."

Penny slowly nods. "And do you by chance know where we can find one of those rooms or a map to those rooms?"

"Nope." Talon says as if it was no big deal, smiling.

Penny stops to look at him. "And why do you look so unaffected?" she asks him confused. "We have to start looking and find the dummy quick."

"I know, I just happen to have an idea. I can use my bracelet to scan the surroundings for closed rooms." He says with a smug grin on his face.

After a while of grinning at Penny, Penny rolls her eyes. "What about actually doing what you suggested?" she asks suppressing laughter.

"OK. Relax," Talon says, starting to press buttons on his bracelet. "I think I have something." Talon suddenly says, sounding excited.

"What do you mean with 'think'?" Penny asks not getting her hopes to high jet.

"Well I have no WiFi connection here, so the scan is not as accurate as it would be with internet." Talon explains. "But at least we have a good guess where to go, now follow me," he says, taking Penny's hand and pulling her forward.

"It should be around the next corner." Talon says. They walk around the corner and in front of them is a rusty metal door. "I love it when I'm right." Talon smirks and looks at Penny in a 'I told you so' kind of way but Penny already looks at their surroundings to find a way to enter the room without her set of lockpicks.

"The door is old, so we should be able to brake it if we hit it hard enough," she mumbles under her breath. She looks expectantly at Talon. "Well you always brag about how strong you are, now's your chance." She smiles at him gesturing towards the door.

"Fine," Talon grumbles, getting into position to force the door open. He takes a few steps back, runs fast towards the door and hits it with his shoulder as hard as possible.

"Damn it!" he curses. The door has a bulge but nothing else has happened. Talon steps back and repeats the action. After the third time the door finally breaks. "Finally!" Talon says triumphantly. He raises his arm, only to wince and hold his shoulder.

"Are you OK?" Penny asks him concerned. She walks over to him and starts to shove away his jacket to look at his arm.

"I'm fine." Talon hisses and pulls his arm out of her grip. He then walks into the emergency room.

"She's here. I mean it. Ugh, you know what I mean." Talon announces from inside the room.

Excitement flushes through Penny, they did it, they found her. Now the only thing left to do is return the dummy to the mission control center in about half a day.

"I'm coming in, we need to get the dummy out together." Penny says while climbing through the broken door.

It's dark inside the emergency room, a telephone is in one corner, a bed in the other. The dummy is on the bed, Talon kneels next to it trying to get the cuffs from the wrist of the dummy.

"It's chained to the bed." He says, looking over his shoulder.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Penny exclaims and sits down next to Talon. "The lockpick set would come in handy again."

"Tell that to my shoulder," Talon says almost inaudible.

"What was that?" Penny asks.

"Nothing. I guess we have to find another way or something similar to lockpicks." Talon says.

"That's it!" Penny says happily, pulling a bobby pin out of her hair.

"You are kidding right? I ruined my shoulder for nothing?!" Talon grumbles through clenched teeth.

"Oh, come on, better now than never." Penny fumbled a bit with her bobby pin but after around a minute she has the handcuffs open.

"OK, let's take her back outside, to our ski and after that to the mission control center ASAP, I'm exhausted." Penny says, lifting the feet of the dummy.

"Fine by me," Talon says, lifting the upper half.

After a couple of hours and no other incident on their way back, Talon and Penny reach the mission control center in time.

"Agents Talon and Penny reporting back with the missing agent Ann Silver. We also arrested two suspects and secured them in the mines. Another team of agents should go and pick them up."

Sara comes over to greet them "Welcome back agents Talon and Penny, you did a great job. For now, you can eat and rest, everything else will be taken care of. In two hours you will return to the camp." With these words Sara leads them back to their room, where sandwiches, fruits and drinks are set out on the table.

"Take whatever you like. You deserve it, see you later." She casually waves and leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

Talon turns to Penny "What would you like to do now that we're finished, eat or sleep?" he asks her smiling. Penny beams at him. "We did it!" she exclaims happily hopping up and down.

"Yeah, we did," Talon agrees laughing a little.

He got caught off guard when Penny suddenly jumps at him, hugging him tight. "We can return to the camp, I'm glad," she whispers, close to his ear.

Talon gulps, pushing her away a little, peering into her face. "Please don't be mad," he says.

Penny looks at him confused "Why should I be m…?" the rest of her sentence gets swallowed, because Talon presses his lips on hers.

Penny's eyes become wide in shock, out of reflex she tries to pull away, but Talon holds her firmly, his hand against her back. Slowly Penny's eyes start to close, and she kisses him back.

Her hands start roaming from his back to his hair, where one hand starts to play with it, the other comes to rest on his chest. Slowly Penny brakes apart because she needs air. She looks up at Talon "Why did you do that?" she asks him quietly, her face full of curiosity and maybe something like hope.

Talon releases her and takes a small step back. "I think I like you…a lot," he awkwardly scratches the back of his head.

At the sight of that Penny starts to giggle. "What?" Talon hisses upset. "Nothing." When she realizes that Talon looks hurt she adds "I think you act cute, I never thought you were actually brave enough to just go for something like this and kiss me." Penny explains a teasing smile playing on her lips.

Talon notices and his hurt expression soon turns into a teasing one. "And you liked it, me being bold and just grab and kiss you, you are one lucky girl" he states, picking up a grape from the table, plopping it into his mouth.

"You are so full of yourself," Penny rolls her eyes half annoyed, half amused.

"And you like it," Talon continues teasing her.

Penny has enough and playfully punches him on the shoulder.

"Ouch!" Talon winches and holds his shoulder.

In an instant Penny's expression turns serious. "Show me your shoulder, you are not fine," she insists with a harsh tone.

Talon lets her lead him to the bed and open his jacket. "You need to take off your shirt too." Penny says.

"I know you want to see me naked," Talon tries joking, but after a look from Penny he falls silent again and does what she asked.

With one look on his shoulder Penny can tell without medical expertise that it is anything but fine. The color of his skin has changed to a bluish purple and it looks swollen.

She looks at Talon accusing. "Why didn't you say anything? I could have helped you to break the door or I could have carried the dummy by myself."

"I didn't want to cause you any trouble," Talon subdued replies.

Penny doesn't know whether she should find this adorable or plain stupid. She shakes her head. "The first place where we're going when we're back at the camp is a doctor, do you understand? I'm going to ask Sara if she has painkiller for you."

"Wait no." Talon says holding her back by her wrist. "I want to know something."

Penny looks at him slightly confused "What is it?" she asks.

Talon's cheeks turn pink. "Well I told you I like you, but you never said anything in return. But I think you enjoyed the kiss?"

Penny falls silent. Sitting back down next to Talon. He looks at her expectantly, his eyes shining with hope. "I like you too." Penny whispers, looking at her hands in her lap. Talon smiles at her in a way she has only seen a few times. He looks happy, relaxed and carefree. "But…" she adds, and his smile drops. "What?" he asks looking like a puppy that got kicked.

Penny takes a deep breath and looks directly into his eyes. "We are nemesis, it doesn't matter what we feel, we can't be like this." She says getting up and out of the room. Talon stays behind, dropping fully on the bed, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

While running through the hallway, Penny tries fighting back her tears. The look on Talon's face when she told him that they can't be like this broke her heart. The only thing she truly wants was being with him, being in his arms, kissing him…

When she remembers the kiss and the soft sensation of his lips on hers she instantly gets embarrassed, her cheeks flushing with heat. She touches her lips and wishes that they would have met under different circumstances.

Back in the main building she finds Sara and asks her for painkiller. On her way back she thinks of possible detours to avoid meeting with Talon again so soon but she has to talk to him eventually so she takes a deep breath and enters their room.

"I got painkiller." She announces, goes to the table, takes a glass of juice and hands both to Talon.

Talon swallows the painkiller "Thanks," he says avoiding to meet her eye.

"You should rest," Penny says pulling a blanket over him. "I'll wake you if we head back to the camp."

Talon simply nods and closes his eyes.

Penny walks over to the table sitting down and taking a sandwich. She sighs, she is not very hungry but decides to eat a bit anyway. She looks over to Talon who seems to have fallen asleep, breathing even and steady. Her eyes tear up and she lets them flow, silently sobbing. She didn't want to hurt him, she wants to be with him. She lightly slaps her cheek. "You know you can't be with him, you need to move on, everything will be fine," she tries to pep talk herself.

After her sandwich she decides that it would be best if she rest a little as well, she informs Sara to wake them when they are picked up and lays down next to Talon, who is still sound asleep.

She curls up like a cat next to him, hoping she would get some sleep and forget all about what happened, at least for a bit.

Although she is certain she won't be able to sleep, Penny falls asleep after several minutes.

Penny wakes up by someone knocking at the door. She slowly opens her eyes, to realize that she snuggled up to Talon during her sleep. She signs and wants to get away from him without waking him, but he must be awake because he holds her in place.

"Talon, let go of me, we need to get up." She days trying to resist the urge to just lie down, snuggle up to him and stay in bed for the rest of the day.

"Agents Penny and Talon, are you awake? Your ride is here." They hear Sara's muffled voice through the door.

"Yes, we are up, we collect our things and will be there in five." Penny answers from the bed because Talon won't let her go to the door.

"OK. I'll wait in the main building." Sara replies, her footsteps getting quieter and disappearing after a few seconds.

"Can I get up please?" Penny asks Talon, getting angrier with the second. What is he even thinking, behaving like that?

"I heard you." Talon says.

"What?" Penny asks.

"I said I heard you."

"Yeah, I know what you said, I mean what did you hear?" Penny asks completely distracted.

"You were crying…" Talon says nothing more, but Penny knew he must have heard her little conversation with herself.

She gives up her resistance and lets him pull her even closer to him.

"I swear we will find a way to make this work, you just need to give me a chance." Talon says pleadingly.

Penny doesn't answer and tears start welling up again.

"We can't, I'm sorry," she finally manages to choke out. She pushes herself up, looking down at him. His face looks incredibly sad, he swallows hard but then nods his head once. "OK," was the only thing he says before getting, putting on his shirt, grabbing his backpack and leaving the room.

 **I hope you liked the new chapter. If you like you can leave a comment and tell me what you think about it. From now on I try to update on a regular basis once a week. So every Saturday a new chapter should be out. Thanks to all of you for reading the story! I hope you have a great week :)**


	9. Chapter 9 - Kayla's Suggestion

"I'm a terrible person," Penny groans into her pillow. She lies face down on her bed, back in the treehouse in camp.

"No, you are not," Kayla says determined. She sits down on the edge of Penny's bed, putting down two cups of hot chocolate on her nightstand.

"Your decision was - well rational. On a logical level it was the right thing to do Pen." Kayla tries to comfort her friend.

Penny pushes herself on her elbows and faces Kayla. "You don't sound too convincing," Penny grumbles. Kayla just looks at her absentmindedly, a smile on her face.

"Hey, anybody home?" Penny sits up and waves her hand in front of Kayla's face.

"Sorry Pen, it's just earlier this day Ben invited me on a date." Kayla says sheepishly.

"That sounds wonderful, how did you two become so close? Where are you going to do?" Penny asks.

Kayla takes Penny's hands in hers. "Girl, I know what you're doing, we can talk about this later. You wanted my opinion on what you said to Talon and actually I think you should go for it. Try out a relationship..."

"WHAT?" Penny interrupts Kayla, trying to pull her hands back. Kayla grips them more tightly. "Let me finish please," Kayla says, looking directly into her friend's eyes.

Penny relaxes a little and Kayla instantly loosens her grip a little.

"You like Talon, he likes you. Both of you deserve to be happy. I know that it might not be logical but if your heart tells you to go for it, just do it. You make a good team. And what is the worst that can happen?"  
"The worst that can happen, the worst that can happen? Are you kidding me? We are nemesis. If either Uncle Gadget or Dr. Claw would find out about me and Talon being in a relationship, they would reduce Metro City to ashes." Penny says desperate.

"But what about you? When was the last time you actually did something for yourself? I know you don't care about the glory of successfully completing a mission, and I know you love your job and helping people but what about your personal happiness? We will be in this camp, probably for a few months, so why don't you try to make the best of it? Try to date Talon. If it doesn't work out it's fine...and if it does I'm sure you'll find a way to make things work even after camp." Kayla arguments, her voice getting louder by the second.

"But..." Penny wants to protest.

"But what? Love is no weaknesses, it makes you stronger. Together you can overcome anything." Kayla stares at Penny intensely. "You of all people should have noticed how far people are willing to go if they are in love. I'm just saying Talon broke his shoulder and said nothing, just so he could help you complete the mission..."

"Just talk to him again." Kayla says giving Penny an encouraging hug.

Penny sighs "You really think he'll give me a second chance?" she asks, looking unsure.

"Girl, he is head over heels for you and not just since yesterday. I think he at least listens to what you have to say, although you might have hurt him." Kayla says and Penny smiles weakly.

"Ah thank goodness, a smile, that's what I wanted to see." Kayla says overly dramatic, handing over a cup to Penny.

Penny rolls her eyes. "Now I want to hear every little detail about Ben and you." Penny says, taking a sip from her cup.

Kayla smiles from ear to ear. "Honestly, I've been dying to tell you" she exclaims.

Her honesty makes Penny laugh and the previous tension fades from her body. At least for now she would deal with her best friend's relationship and not hers, soon enough she will have to face her feelings, now it's just nice to listen to someone else who is completely head over heels for a cute guy.

After some time of telling Penny every little detail about how Ben and she trained together, how he cared if she feels down and their movie nights in her treehouse, Kayla suggested the both of them could go on a double date with Talon and Ben.

"Easy K, don't get to far ahead of yourself." Penny stops her laughing. "We are no couple and maybe we will never be, so take it easy."

Kayla smiles sheepishly "Yeah, you are right. I just got carried away." She looks at her phone.

"Oh no!" she exclaims, jumping up from Penny's bed.

"What happened?" Penny asks.

"Nothing, I'm just late," Kayla says packing her stuff in a hurry. "We have training today, just those from the special mission have one day of free time. But I'm glad you made it back in one piece and I'm sure you'll figure something out about Talon."

Kayla waves and rushes out of the treehouse. "See ya," was the last thing Penny hears before the door closes behind Kayla.

Penny drops back on her bed and signs. She has to talk to Talon eventually and she knows he must be back from the doctor by now. Penny takes puts on a hoodie and her shoes and leaves her treehouse. Over a small suspension bridge Penny reaches Talons treehouse, takes a deep breath and knocks twice.

"Who's it?" Penny hears Talons muffled voice through the door.

"It's me," she answers until she realizes that she should probably tell her name. "Penny, can I come in? I'd like to talk to you, please."

Silence fills the room and Penny is about to leave when Talon responds. "It's open, come in."

Carefully Penny opens the door. Talon lays on his bed, a bowl with fruit and a cup of tea on his nightstand, watching TV. When Penny enters he mutes the TV and sits up, his back leaning against the headboard. His arm is in a sling, fixed to his torso.

Penny closes the door behind you.

"How is your shoulder?" she asks quietly.

"Fine," Talon replies curtly.

Penny comes closer, unsure if she is allowed to sit down or if he wants her to leave immediately. She decides to keep standing and slowly speaks up again.

"Look, I'm here to apologize. I slept over what you told me yesterday, well actually I didn't sleep but I think I, I made a mistake." Penny looks at Talon unsure whether she should continue.

After a while Talon asks, "What kind of mistake?"

"I told Kayla what you said to me and she told me the decision I made, concerning a possible relationship between us was logic and rational." Penny tries to explain her predicament.

"So you're here to decline me again?" Talon asks, his face frozen.

"No, no," Penny says, waving her hands in an appeasing gesture.

"Kayla told me to for once stop thinking rational and follow my heart." Penny goes on with her explanation.

Talon stares at her with a straight face, so Penny continues "You said we can figure out a way to be together and my heart is ready to try, I am willing to give us a try." Penny lowers her gaze, playing with the hem of her hoodie. "Assuming I didn't hurt you so bad you don't like to be with me anymore." she mumbles.

Talon's blanket rustles, so Penny looks up. Talon pushes himself off the headboard, and to the edge of his bed, he gets up and walks to Penny, stopping right in front of her.

He lowers his head a little "Look at me," he whispers. "Please."

Penny slowly lifts her head, her eyes meeting Talon's. He still wears a straight face, but slowly it cracks and the corners of his mouth start pulling upwards.

His smile soon reaches his dark brown eyes and all Penny can think about is that she wants to kiss him again.

"You are sure?" Talon asks, although his face tells her, he already believes her.

Instead of answering Penny closes the distance between them and kisses Talon on the mouth, light like a feather. She pulls away before he can react.

"Is that answer enough?" she asks him, smiling from happiness and relive.

"I don't think the kiss was very convincing," Talon says, trying to hide the smirk spreading on his face. "Maybe you should try again?" he suggests.

Penny darks a killing glance at him, but Talon simply laughs and pulls her to him by the waist.

"I can show you what a convincing kiss looks like," he purrs into her ear, making Penny shiver.

Talon slowly kisses Penny's ear, then her jaw and finally her mouth. He moves slow and soft, his hand resting at the side of her face. After a while he pulls away. "Know what I mean?" he asks Penny, who has trouble following because she is too distracted by Talon's lips, that just look extremely kissable.

Without bordering to answer she takes his face in both hands and kisses him again. Talon slowly walks back, pulling Penny with him until both of them are sitting on his bed and breaking their kiss in the need of air.

"Now I can get used to that," Talon goofily grins.

Penny can't help to grin herself. "What now?" she asks.

Talon raises his eyebrows "Wow, you're fast. We are in a relationship for a few minutes and you wanna do the naughty stuff already?" he says, maintaining a serious face.

Penny blushes madly "No this is not what I meant, I wanted to ask what to do with the rest of the day." Talon raises his eyebrows even further. "Ugh, I mean, I, I," desperately Penny gets up, trying to flee from the situation. Talon grabs her wrist.

"Relax," he says smiling. "What about we watch a movie and talk? I don't really think I'm capable of much more, my shoulder hurts like hell."

Penny looks at him accusing "You said your shoulder is fine!"

"Yeah, well I was kind of mad and wanted to get to the gist as fast as possible, best decision I've ever made by the way." Talon shrugs his unhurt shoulder.

"And I know something that can ease my pain," Talon starts overly dramatic.

"And what is that?" Penny asks although she had quiet a good idea of what might come.

"A kiss of course," he says smiling and pointing to his lips.

Penny shakes her head and rolls her eyes but leans down to peck his lips.

A few minutes later they lay on Talon's bed, Talon once again leaning at the headboard and Penny's head resting on his chest on the side of his unhurt shoulder. She snuggles up against him and Talon turns back on the volume of the TV.


	10. Chapter 10 - A Surprise From Uncle Claw

**Sorry I didn't update yesterday, but the chapter wasn't ready. Now it is, so enjoy reading :)**

 **A few weeks later in the dining hall**

"100 of you passed the first two months in camp, congratulations." Jim announces.

Cheer rises from the junior agents.

"But don't be too cheerful you have to continue working hard to stay in the camp. Normally after the first two months the competition gets a lot harder. Those of you who are still here are the best junior agents we have. Keep that in mind and prepare for the missions to come. Now enjoy your dinner and have a good nights sleep."

 **A little later in Penny's treehouse**

"Could you make me a sandwich?" Talon asks. He lays on Penny's bed, smiling sweetly at her.

Penny rolls her eyes. "What about you get up and make one yourself?" Penny answers with her hands on the hips, standing in the kitchen.

"But you know my shoulder still hurts," Talon argues. Penny hesitates for a moment, putting down the sandwich she just made for herself, then walks over to her bed and sits down next to Talon. "OK, I'll make you a sandwich."

Penny lays her hand on his cheek, leaning down to kiss him. Soon the kiss becomes deeper and Talon pulls Penny close and on top of him. When Penny lays on top of Talon she pushes herself away and smiles at him. Talon tries to kiss her again, but she pulls away a little more, now grinning widely.

"What is so funny?" Talon asks obviously a little annoyed.

"I was right with my assumption." Penny says climbing down from Talon. She walks over to the kitchen, picking up the sandwich she just made and taking a bite of it.

Talon looks at her confused, pouting a little.

"What about my sandwich?" he asks. "You can make one yourself." Penny says grinning. "What about my shoulder?"

"Your shoulder is fine, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to pull me on top of you." Penny states, taking another bite of her sandwich.

Talons pout turns into a smile, although he fights it. "You're mean." Talon says laughing.

He gets up walking to her and hugs Penny from behind. He places a kiss on her neck and Penny giggles.

"Can I at least have a bit?" he asks hugging her tight. Penny laughs. "Fine we can share, lazy bone." Penny splits her sandwich in half, turns to face Talon and gives him one half.

"What do you think will be our next task?" Talon asks eating his half of the sandwich.

"I don't know. I mean we had target practice and we needed to find missing people, we also worked on our weapon skills and our team work and communication. We trained with a lot of equipment and we improvised so I really don't know." Penny says shrugging her shoulders.

"I hope it has something to do with hanging around here with you," Talon says.

Penny raises her eyebrows and shakes her hand a little. "You are so lazy."  
"No, I just love spending time with you." Talon says looking at her. Penny blushes and looks away.

"Hey," Talon softly says, holding Penny's cheek and making her look at him. "I love you Penny." Talon says, softly smiling at her. "I love everything about you and I want to spend as much time with you as humanly possible." He caresses her cheek and before she can even respond he leans forward and kisses her.

When he brakes the kiss she smiles up at him. "I..."

They got interrupted by a loud cracking noise. Talon immediately steps in front of Penny and shields her. "Hey, I can manage to protect my self just fine." Penny exclaims stepping next to Talon, looking out of the window.

"Look over there, it seems like a suspension bridge broke. We should go and check out if we can help." Penny analyses the situation.

She takes big steps towards the door. "Penny," Talon stops her. "We should change before we head out. Or would you like to show the world your sleeping shorts and bra?" he asks a smile spreading on his face. He watches his girlfriend stop, turn around, glaring at him, running over to the sofa to fetch a jacket and run back to the door.

"Hurry or I'll leave without you," she says, sticking her tongue out to him. "I'm coming, I'm coming," he announces laughing.

They reach the broken bridge where a commotion is forming. Penny pushes through the other agents to see what has happened. She pulls Talon behind her. When she reaches the bridge, she stops dead in her tracks. "What's there? Why did you stop?" Talon asks, steps next to her and glances over her shoulder.

At the sight he immediately turns pale. It was no broken branch as they had suspected that broke the suspension bridge, it was a metal box with the M.A.D logo on it.

Penny turns to Talon "Do you know what that is?" she asks him, her voice shaking.

Talon gulps and slowly nods. "I think I do," he says with a broken voice.

He then continues "Before I came to the camp my uncle was working on a robotic project. More concrete on little robots that can control the human body. He wanted to gather talented people and turn them into his personal army."

Everyone around them falls silent at Talon's explanation. A boy speaks up. "Mate, are you sure about that? Couldn't there be something else in the box?"

Talon turns to him "I mean there could be something else in the box, but this is my best guess. I think the box is still locked, so we can maybe bring it to a containment room or something," Talon thinks loud.

The crowd once again gets noisy. "Why should we trust him. He is a M.A.D. Agent," says a girl accusing. "He should leave the camp immediately," another girl suggests. "What if he is involved? He should go to the containment room," another boy screams.

Talon looks into their faces, looking at everyone around him and no one says anything to defend him. Penny steps forward. "He is not involved. I know it, so stop blaming him and rather think of something productive we can do to prevent something bad from happening." she announces with a clear, loud voice.

The other junior agents look at each other and slowly start to nod. "Somebody should alert Jim, he should be able to tell us what to do." Penny says, and a pair of agents dashes off into the dawn.

"The rest of us should concentrate on how we can possibly evacuate our treehouses or safely transport and contain the box." Penny goes on.

"Maybe we can get some ropes and wood panels to repair the suspension bridge," someone suggests.

"Yeah, we'll go and get some," a pair says and leaves.

"I may have an idea that can prevent the box from opening unless we want it. But I'm going to need a few of you to help me." a girl says, gathering a group of people around her.

Penny turns around to see how Talon is holding up but can't see him anywhere.

"What exactly happened and where is Talon? I need to talk to him." Jim's voice booms over the crowd. Penny looks over to catch a glimpse of Jim before she ducks between the other agents and sneaks off in search of Talon.

Penny starts her search in both of their treehouses, but Talon is nowhere to be found. She remembers Talon once told her about his favorite spot near a little lake past the training buildings. Penny rushes down the tree and slows down when she sees Talon sitting by the lake, throwing stones into it.

It is a small lake with a small wooden dock, surrounded by a lot of green. Now the moon reflects on the water, rippling with every stone that brakes through the surface. When Penny is just about to call out to him, his bracelet starts to shine. He presses a few buttons and answers it.

"What?" Talon asks annoyed. "Are you alone?" a male voice sounds through the quiet night. "Yeah." Talon replies short. "I hope you received my present?" the voice asks lightly. Talon looks around, then raises his voice a little "Honestly what are you thinking?" "I'm thinking you are going to do what I want from you or else you know what happens."

A chill runs down Penny's spine. She recognizes that voice. It's the voice of Talons uncle, the leader of M.A.D. What are they talking about? Is Talon involved in anything that concerns the incident with the metal box. Was he lying to her? Penny shakes her head and pushes away her bad feelings. She has to trust him, she is sure he will tell her, she just needs to ask.

She steps out from behind the bushes "Talon?" she calls out to him. He immediately turns around and smiles at her insecure. "Hey, sorry I needed to get away from everyone for a bit. It was actually quite the shock to find that box."

Penny sits down next to him and takes his hand. "I'm here for you, you can tell me everything."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it Penny," Talon says pecking her lips.

He gets up not letting go Penny's hand, so he can help her get up. "I think we should head back, I guess they are already looking for us," he says, smiling a little.

"Yeah, you are probably right." Penny says, forcing herself to give him a small smile.

She had hoped he would tell her about his uncle's call right away. Maybe he really is involved in whatever this is. Penny fights back her tears and lets herself be pulled back to the tree by Talon.

When they return to the broken suspension bridge Jim is already waiting for them. "Agents Penny and Talon, where were you?" Before Penny can answer Talon steps forward.

"It's my fault. I had to get away, after seeing the box. Penny came after me to get me back, what she obviously managed." He turns to Penny and gives her a sweet smile.

"OK, whatever the reason you were gone, now you're back here. I have to ask you one question and you need to promise me to tell nothing but the truth. You know this camp is neutral, we just want to make good agents out of all of you. The side you choose to fight for in the end, is not our responsibility or choice to make, it's up to everybody themselves. So that aside, do you have anything to do with what happened here today Talon?"

All eyes of the agents gathered around the suspension bridge were now on Talon. Talon painfully distorts his face, looking back at Penny a step behind him.

"Yes," he says loud and clear, his eyes fixed on Jim, his face becoming straight and emotionless.

Penny's eyes get wide behind him, she feels weird. What is going on? Why does Talon say he has something to do with this although he seemed so surprised himself? Something feels more than wrong.

Penny steps next to Talon. "He's lying," she announces flatly. Talon hasn't expected this reaction from her and his straight face crumbles down, he's now staring at Penny in utter disbelief.

"What are you doing?" he hisses at her.

"Preventing you from doing something stupid," she shoots back.

Jim looks back and forth between the two of them. "I don't really know who of you is telling the truth but until the matter is clear, Talon is going to detention. And Penny, you won't be a part of the investigation because you seem to be emotionally involved."

Penny nods "Can I go to detention with him?" she asks and gets a surprised gasp from the other agents.

Jim raises his eyebrows "If that's what you wish?" he half states, half asks.

"Yes." Penny answers right away.

"As you wish," Jim says. "Please follow me."


	11. Chapter 11 - Detention (part 1)

**Hey guys, I'm visiting a friend at the moment, so I didn't have the time to write a complete chapter. So I'll update half of it now and the other half when I'm back home on either Monday evening or Tuesday morning. Sorry for the delay and I hope you have a great weekend :)**

"Wait!" Talon exclaims. "I don't want her to come with me to detention."

Penny crosses her arms and rolls her eyes, Jim raises an eyebrow. "And why is that if I may ask?"

Talon stares at him, then Penny "Never mind," he mutters and drops his head.

Jim looks at him one last time before starting to walk, giving Penny and Talon a sign to follow him.

Penny had thought there is no real detention room in the camp, but she was wrong. Jim leads them to a hidden room right under the dining hall. A small staircase just behind the little stage in the next room, where they were greeted, leads down into a cellar.

Jim enters a code and opens the door. "After you," he says and points into the room. Talon and Penny step inside.

The only other door in the room probably leads to a bathroom, no windows or other exits in sight. Regardless of that the room looked quite cozy. Similar to the interior of the treehouses there are a bed, a small kitchen, a sofa and TV, additionally there is a big dining table and some bookshelves in the room.

"Make yourselves comfortable, as long as the investigation continues there will be no missions for you. When your name is cleared you will have to do all the tasks you missed as soon as possible." Jim explains their situation.

"Just as I said, I don't know who of you is telling the truth, but I want to say one thing. If you Talon, really have something to do with this metal box and are so trying to manipulate the camp as you say, I'm more than disappointed in you. But for now, in my eyes you are innocent until proven guilty." Jim steps back to the entrance.

"This place has a few surveillance cameras, of course not in the bathroom, just so you know. You'll find everything you need in here." He points at a few cupboards and a closet.

"Talon, you will have to give me your boots and bracelet please." Jim puts out his hand to take the things from Talon. Talon reluctantly gives both away.

Jim smiles at them "Thank you and good night. I will come to talk to you tomorrow after breakfast." Jim nods once and leaves the room. A few muffled beeps could be heard, the code to lock them in, then the sound of fading footsteps.

Penny sits down on the sofa and signs. "Well the evening went definitely different than I imagined," she tries the loosen the tense mood.

Talon walks up and down in the room he then exclaims angrily "What are you thinking. I don't want you to be here." He looks at her, taking his hair out.

Penny gets up, standing right in front of Talon "What I am thinking? What about you? It was your suggestion to talk about everything." Penny exclaims frustrated.

Talon looks at her confused "What are you talking about?" he shouts.

Penny's voice is low and cold "I overheard the conversation with your uncle at the lake, so stop playing dumb. I'm not stupid, you know." Penny goes back to the sofa, sits down and puts a blanket around herself.

Talon still stands in the middle of the room, his shoulders dropped and head hanging.

They both stay quiet for a while until Penny clears her throat "What will happen if you don't do what he asks you to do? And what should you do for him?"

"Nothing," Talon tries to end the conversations.

Penny looks at him, in deep thought, then slowly her face lights up in understanding. "It's about me, isn't it?" she asks.

She knows she has hit the mark because Talon abruptly looks at her, face pale, eyes wide in shock.

Penny continues calmly investigating the matter further. "Has he told you he'll hurt me if you don't do what I ask or do something to my uncle or anything?"

Talon doesn't react so Penny continues "You know this is not the first time someone is threatening me or anyone else at HQ. I can handle it, I'm neither small, nor helpless." Penny states.

She gets up, the blanket still around herself and walks over to Talon, who still hasn't moved a muscle. She stops right in front of him.

"So what about you start to trust me enough to help you? You know this is the good part of a relationship, you don't have to go through stuff like this alone, I can help you."

Penny puts a hand on his cheek and makes him look her in the face. She can see that he is at the verge of tears.

"I love you and I want to be with you," she whispers. "So stop acting like a protective fool and tell me what's going on. I don't want to lose you, please talk to me." Penny raises herself on tiptoes, softly placing a kiss in Talon's cheek. It's a bit wet and it tastes salty. Talon desperately closes his eyes trying to stop the tears from flowing.

"It's alright" Penny softly says, kissing another tear away and pulling Talon close, hugging him.

At first, he doesn't react but slowly his tension starts to fade, and he returns Penny's embrace.

"I'm sorry," he whispers after a while. Penny looks up at him.

"Why don't you tell me the whole story?" she asks, smiling up to him and pulling him to the sofa.


	12. Chapter 11 - Detention (part 2)

**Here is the second part of chapter 11. Thank you for reading the story so far and enjoy the rest of the chapter!**

They sit on the sofa next to each other and Talon slowly starts to speak.

"I was right about the content of the metal box. Uncle Claw finished the robots and wants to test them now. He located me over my bracelets GPS." Talon runs his hands through his hair.

"Ugh, how could I have been so stupid?" he exclaims while getting up from the sofa. "It was his plan all along, and of course his mom _broke her leg_ " he sarcastically growls, his eyes full of self-hatred.

"Talon?", "Talon!" Penny practically screams waving her hands in front of his face. After his last sentence several minutes had passed and he still hasn't continued his sentence.

"Yeah?" he weakly asks, sinking back on the sofa. Penny takes his hand in hers.

"I'm sorry," she says kissing the back of his hand. "But I don't really understand why you couldn't tell me about the call from your uncle?"

Talon looks up, his face showing sadness and pain.

"He told me everything. How he fooled me into playing a part in his crazy game. I mean he planned this all along. He only told me his mother broke her leg, so I would go to the camp. He was the one who gave me a new bracelet right before my departure and I was actually happy about it, because I thought he cares. But the only reason he gave me this bracelet was to locate me in camp and spy on me."

Talon takes a deep breath and continues "He knows about us, that I made you a bracelet of your own and linked it with mine. He said if I don't help him now, he will tell HQ we are in a relationship, so you can't be an agent anymore or if this isn't enough he said he won't bother to kill you." After finishing Talon gulps visibly.

He drops his head again, staring at their joined hands.

"The only thing he is truly capable of is manipulating people for his own goals and I'm his favorite pawn."

He pulls his hand away from Penny and instead takes both her hands in his he straightens up and shows a determined look.

"Let's end this once and for all! I'm tired of being a pawn. I want to be a good agent and I want to be with you and nothing is getting in my way anymore, especially not my stupid uncle. Now let's get out of here and find a way to stop his crazy invention." Talon pulls Penny with him up to their feet.

Penny smiles at him but shakes her head. "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but it wouldn't be the best idea to break the door and run away." Penny cups Talon's cheek with her hand.

"It's sweet you wanted to protect me but never do something this stupid again. And it is not your fault your uncle manipulated you. I knew right from the start that you were a good guy." Penny finishes her sentence a bit teasingly to get a smile back on Talon's face.

Just as planned, Talon immediately reacts. "I'm not sweet, the only thing I surely am is hot and I'm not a _good_ guy as you say, I'm an evil genius" he exclaims, stepping away from Penny and crossing his arms. Penny chuckles.

"Now that's my boy. Always exaggerating and arrogant." Penny says grinning.

"Hey!" Talon says pouting.

"Now come on, do you want to hear my plan for tomorrow or what?" she asks him, an adventurous glow in her eyes.

Talon grins "Sure thing."

They made plans the whole evening, when they are finished it is already past midnight.

"I'm super tired," Penny yawns.

"Should I carry you to bed?" Talon asks.

"Is this a genuine offer or do you have ulterior motives?" Penny asks skeptically.

"A bit of both I guess," Talon says grinning, shrugging his shoulders.

Penny rolls her eyes. "That answer was beyond useless," she states. "But yes, I would like you to carry me and since your shoulder is fine again I won't feel bad for it." Penny says happily.

Talon picks her up from the sofa and carries her to the bed in the corner of the room. He carefully puts her down and looks at her intensely. "Thank you," he then says.

"For what?" Penny asks.

"For staying by my side even in tough times," Talon says, taking a strand of her hair, playing with it.

"You know I really like to forget about all of this for a while," he signs, letting go of her hair and falling onto the bed.

Penny smiles, letting herself drop next to him.

"I might know something that can distract you for a while," she says.

Talon looks at her with raised eyebrows. "And what is that?" he asks.

Instead of answering Penny climbs on his lap.

Talon smile deepens. "I think I like this kind of distraction," he says happily.

Penny gives him an annoyed look "Ugh, just be quiet and kiss me already," she says, pulling him close.

At first the kiss is soft and light like a feather, it soon becomes deeper and more passionate. Talon lays back and pulls Penny on top of him without braking the kiss. When thy separate for air, they both look at each other smiling.

"You know when I'm with you I have no worries," Talon tells her, a hint of surprise in his voice. Penny slides off him, now they lie next to each other, face to face.

"I love you Penny," Talon says, leaning forward and kissing Penny's.

"That tickles," Penny giggles. She turns around and snuggles up to Talon, her back against his chest.

"You would make an excellent pillow," she says sleepily.

"I'm just brilliant at everything," Talon whispers in her ear and makes Penny smile.

She opens her eyes once again and looks over her shoulder. "We will find a way to be together and we will stop your uncles plan," Penny turns back and closes her eyes "…tomorrow. For now, the only thing I want to do is sleep here in your arms." She says her voice getting softer with every word.

Talon smiles down at her, pulling a blanket over the two of them and kissing her cheek lightly.

"I'm sure you're right, you plan is brilliant, like always," he whispers in her hair.


	13. Chapter 12 - Something Is Off

Penny sleepily rubs her eyes, something makes her feel uncomfortable. Where is she? This is not her treehouse. Then she remembers what happened the day before. She looks to her right, where Talon is still sleeping. His chest falling and raising in an even and deep rhythm, his hair tousled, his face looking a little exhausted. Penny quietly sighs. Why does he always have to play everyone else's hero? He should take better care of himself. Carefully, not to wake him, she caresses his cheek, thinking about yesterday's events.

Although she remembers what happened she feels odd, like something is off. How long has it been since they went to bed? Jim wanted to come and speak with them again after breakfast. Penny gets up and looks at the clock in the kitchen. It's 1:30pm. A chill runs down her spine. Something is definitely off. Why wasn't Jim here already, like he said he'd be?

Penny takes a few deep breaths, she doesn't want to wake Talon and make him worry even more.

"OK, first things first. I need to see if there is another clock in here and confirm the time," she says to herself, starting to look for another clock.

As quietly as possible she opens all the drawers in the kitchen to check for a wrist watch or small alarm clock or something similar to that. Then she checks near the sofa and in the bathroom, but she can't find any other clock to confirm the time.

"Damn it!" she curses silently. She lets her gaze wander through the room and looks back to the TV, with a smile on her face.

"Of course," she lightly slaps her forehead. "The TV has a clock. Now where is the remote?"

After a short search for the remote, Penny presses the on button.

"Damn," she says sighing, sitting down on the sofa, tossing the remote control away from her. According to the TV it's 1:50pm now.

Penny takes a last look at the TV and walks over to the bed. She sits down next to Talon, softly shaking his shoulder.

"Talon, hey Talon, it's time to wake up," she softly says, placing a kiss on his cheek.

Talon begins to move and mumbles "What time is it?"

"Time for you to get up, sleepyhead. I need to talk to you, we might have a problem."

In an instant Talon is in a sitting position, staring at Penny.

"Are you injured or anybody else?" he asks looking around fanatically.

"No, I'm fine," Penny says, "But it's nearly 2pm."

Talon looks at her confused. "So?" he asks.

"Jim wanted to come to us after breakfast, I have an odd gut feeling, I don't know, it's stupid," Penny tries to make sense of her feelings.

Talon looks at her intensely, his features darken. "If you have the feeling something is off, most of the time something really is off. I hate it when you are right but in most of those cases you usually are," Talon says after thinking for a short while.

He gets up from the bed, rubbing his eyes and walking towards the kitchen. "I need coffee, I hope they have some here," he says, starting to go through the cupboards one by one.

"Over the sink," Penny says, getting up from the bed as well.

"What?" Talon asks.

"The coffee, it's over the sink," Penny says, showing it to Talon.

"What do we do now?" Penny asks. "Well if you think something is wrong, we should find a way to communicate with the others," Talon suggests.

"For example, we can try to call Kayla and Ben."

"But all the systems in here are blocked. There is no communication allowed from inside to the outside. Just the other way around," Penny says frustrated.

"And you honestly think I would be boarded by that?" Talon asks, taking a sip of his fresh cup of coffee.

"Ah, that feels so good," he says dreamily.

"Talon focus, I really think we have a problem here," Penny says annoyed.

"Relax and let the master do his work," Talon says, putting away his cup, walking over the computer and connecting the keyboard with the TV.

"Now let's see what we have here," he says, starting to open the menu of the TV. "You were right. communication from inside is blocked, but I think I can easily reverse it, just give me a second," Talon explains deep in thought.

Penny looks over his shoulder. Why didn't she think of that? Just as Talon said it was not too difficult to reverse the communication.

"Finished," Talon announces grinning widely.

Penny rushes next to him and sits down. "Great call Kayla, please," Penny says looking at him expectantly.

"Right away love," Talon says wiggling his eyebrows.

After a few seconds Kayla answers the call. "Oh, thank goodness Kayla," Penny sighs.

"Penny!" Kayla's eyes become wide, "Where are you? Something crazy is going on here. I thought they got you," Kayla says relived.

"Who got me?" Penny asks alarmed.

"Those creepy little robot things. They are a little like ticks, they bite you and after that they vanish under your skin. Once they are under your skin, you don't remember being bitten and behave the way you have before."

Talon next to Penny turns completely pale. "They can be activated and controlled," he chokes, "With my bracelet," he then completes his sentence.

Penny turns to Kayla "Where is Ben?" she asks her friend. "He was bitten," Kayla say hanging her head. "We evacuated those who we know are bitten to a separate room. Almost half of the agents here are bitten. And nearly everyone from your side of the tree. So, where the heck are you guys?"

Penny looks at Talon and takes his hand. "I'm sorry about Ben," she tries to comfort Kayla.

"We are in the detention room," Talon answers her question.

Kayla silently watches them for a couple of seconds. "Why?" she then asks.

"Those little robots, ticks, you called them, they are my uncle's invention." Talon explains. "And now everyone thinks I'm involved."

"Oh," Kayla says her eyes round. "But you aren't?"

"K!" Penny interrupts her friend, glaring at her. "Do you think I would be here with him if I wasn't sure he isn't involved?" she asks.

"This is a trick question, right?" Kayla asks carefully.

"Yes," Penny confirms. "Now do you think you can get us out of here?" Penny asks. "It's a room under the dining room, a staircase behind the stage leads here." Penny asks.

"I'm on my way," Kayla says, "but first I'm going to put on something hopefully tick proof."

"Be careful," Penny says, before ending the call.

"Now what?" Talon asks.

"We wait for Kayla and think of a way to stop those ticks from getting activated." Penny states, a determined look on her face.

 **Hey guys, my semester started last week, and I can't update 2000 words per week anymore. I'll try my best, but I think the chapters will be around 1000 words most of the time. It would be great to hear in the comments what you think about the story so far! Thank you and have a great week!**


	14. Chapter 13 - Ticks activated

**I know I haven't updated for a very long time but I really like to continue the story so I try to update on a regular basis again. I hope you enjoy the next chapter!**

A few minutes later Penny and Talon hear knocking on the door. "Any clue how to open that thing?" Kayla's muffled voice comes from the outside. Talon looks at Penny "Wasn't she supposed to be a solution to at least one of our problems?" he asks annoyed. Penny looks at him, surprised and a little hurt "Hey, don't be like that."

Something about him seems different. Quickly she pushes that thought aside, first of all they need to get out of here.

She faces towards the door. "When Jim brought us here, he opened the door with some kind of hidden keyboard. It should be somewhere on your left-hand side."

They hear mumbling and scratching, and shortly after that beeping sounds. After a couple of minutes, the door clicks open and Talon and Penny immediately rush out.

"Finally!" Talon exclaims. Penny looks at him brows furrowed. "What is up with you? A few minutes ago, you were just fine?"

Instead of answering her Talon rushes past them and disappears with fast steps. Penny stays where she is flabbergast.

"What was that?" Kayla askes her face confused. Penny turns towards her friend, opening her mouth to react to that question but instead closing it, and open it back again.

"Are you ok?" Kayla wants to know waving her hand in front of Penny's face.

"K, what on earth are you wearing?" Penny asks looking extremely disturbed.

"Hopefully something tick-proof" she says smiling brightly, showing off her self-made, tick-proof clothing mostly made out of bubble wrap.

Penny sights "If I wasn't so worried about Talon right now, I would totally worry about you. Talon and I…I, I thought we were fine and talked about everything last night, but it seems I was wrong." Penny slowly sinks to the floor, her determination from earlier seems so far away. Something was definitely off, and she was sick of it. She buries her face in her hands. Kayla slowly unwraps herself, sitting down next to her best friend and putting her arm around her.

"I'm sure no matter what everything will be fine in the end." Penny turns towards her, tears glistening in her eyes. "Everyone suffers because Talon and I put our personal happiness before everything else, and before you disagree Ben is in danger because of us, Jim was probably bitten too, half of the agents in this camp are puppets as soon as Dr. Claw activates his tiny mind-controlling robots. Maybe it would be best for me to help get rid of the problems I caused and then leave the camp and Talon for good, he doesn't seem to mind either judging by the way he just ignored us…"

"SLAP" Kayla slaps Penny on her cheek "Get a hold of yourself girl! You're not the type for weeping and now is not time for it anyway."

Kayla stands up and straightens her clothes "Of course it sucks that Ben was bitten but you leaving wouldn't help anyone. You can't leave when things are getting tough, there will be better times ahead, I promise!"

Penny lightly slaps her cheeks to get rid of her negative emotions. "You are right! I need to focus. We need to find Talon, and find out what is wrong with him before everything gets worse. Maybe he knows a way how to end this."

"Now that's the spirit" Kayla smiles and tugs her friend into a short but firm hug.

Together they leave the detention room and the dining hall. Penny looks around on high alert, not hearing a single sound "Where is anyone?"

Kayla shrugs her shoulders. "Half of the people are in containment, the other half is too afraid to get bitten to step out of their huts."

"So they are doing nothing?" Penny exclaims frustrated. "They are all agents, and that said one of the b…"

"Hey I never dreamed of saying that to you but you talk to much. Listen! We have come up with a possible plan how to deactivate the ticks once they have been activated. The only problem we weren't able to test that because no one has been mind-controlled yet." Kayla explains matter-of-factly.

Penny looks at her apologetically. "I'm sorry, again. Let's head to my treehouse and see if we can find Talon and ask what's the matter with him."

The girls manage to get to Penny's treehouse without further incidents. "Talon is not here and I tried to call him on his bracelet, but either Jim still has it or he is not answering. Unfortunately I can't pinpoint his location either." Penny informs the other agents in their huts via the face-time network they set up while she was in detention.

"Please inform us as soon as you spot him!" with this Penny ends the connection.

"We need to eat something, and as much as I hate to say it, I think it's best to stay here until we get word of someone who has spotted Talon." Kayla says while preparing sandwiches.

"How in the world can you think about eating now? I feel more than sick, it isn't like Talon to disappear into nothingness like that." Penny paces up and down in her treehouse.

A couple of hours later, they receive a call. Talon has been spotted near the containment room. In a matter of seconds Kayla and Penny grab their gear and are out of the treehouse.

"We need to be careful" Kayla whispers. "We don't know what's wrong with Talon." Penny nods, not able to say anything.

Just as described Talon is indeed nearby the containment room, pacing up and down just as Penny did earlier. "I'll try to approach him." Penny says getting out of their hiding place.

"Talon?" she calls cautiously, and he immediately turns towards her, eyes cold as ice. Penny feels a cold shiver running down her spine.

"Pretty Penny" Talon says awfully slow, walking towards her. Penny must suppress the urge to step back when he comes closer and closer. "I waited for you, why haven't you come sooner?"

Penny ignores the question "What happened to you?" she tries to reach out to him to touch his cheek but he stops her and slaps away her hand.

"Wha.." Penny starts, her eyes wide.

"Oh pretty Penny I'm so sorry to disappoint you but now that my plan has finally started to become reality I don't have to keep up the charade and pretend I like you anymore…In just about five minutes all of these lovely agents in the containment room will be mind-controlled and listen to my every order."

Talon moves even closer to Penny and grabs her wrists. "I have to admit that you are an excellent fighter, so I'm sure there is a tick left for you and you can join my army." A smirk spreads on Talons face, but not the usual one Penny loves, this one is cold and evil and makes Penny feel like she wants to throw up.

Looking for a possible escape out of this situation, without braking Talon something, Penny spots Jim next to the door of the containment room. "Jim, help me!" she calls out.

Jim turns towards her "Why should I disobey my master?" he asks looking at her perplex.

Talon giggles like crazy "Maybe even less than five minutes."


	15. Chapter 14 - New hope?

Penny breaths heavily, her whole body shivers and cold sweat runs down her spine. How was this possible? Talon was with her this whole time, he couldn't have been bitten by a tick, right? The ticks got free while they were in detention…so does this mean Talon lied to her this whole time and now he is showing his true colors?

Penny's knees give in and Talon lets go of her wrists, a disgusted look on his face. "I don't want someone as pathetic as you in my army, so I'll let you go after all." He shrugs his shoulders, yawns, turns around and leaves with Jim by his side.

As soon as Talon is out of sight Penny breaks down in a completely shivering mess. Kayla comes rushing towards her from her hiding spot and hugs her tightly.

"I'm here for you" she whispers into Penny's hair, reassuringly petting her back. Suddenly they hear a loud noise and break apart. Penny drying the tears off her face with her sleeve.

"It sounded like it came from the containment room." Penny says on high alert and focused once again.

"What did Talon tell you before he left?" Kayla asks, her face becoming a sickly green.

"I think you already know the answer to that judging by the color of your face." Penny answers with a grim expression while regarding her friend. "He said the ticks will be activated within the next five minutes and time has run out by now."

Just as Penny ends her sentence, they hear the crushing sound again but louder this time. They run towards the containment room to prevent the worst from happening, but they were too late. Somehow the agents in the containment room managed to brake one of the bulletproof windows and are now fleeing. Some of them in the direction Talon and Jim disappeared to and, after what looks like a brief discussion, some of them run towards Penny and Kayla.

The two girls stop dead in their tracks. Kayla looks at Penny panicking. "RUN!" is everything Penny says, while taking her friends hand and dashing off into the direction they just came from. After a few minutes of chasing Penny and Kayla breath heavily but their persecutors seem unaffected.

"Damn it, this isn't working", Penny says clenching her teeth. "Quick, behind those bushes, that will buy us a few minutes." Kayla only nods and follows Penny who is already cowering behind the bushes.

"I would say we have a maximum of one to two minutes until they find us, so what is the plan?" Penny asks.

Kayla takes a deep breath. "Ok, all of the ticks have been activated. The perfect opportunity to test whether or not our method of deactivating and getting rid of them works. I just need a possibility to get the news to the others…" Kayla trails off mid-sentence.

"Ok. I'll buy you time by leading them away from here. They'll possibly catch me, but it might be good to have an insider and you are the one who knows where the rest of the agents is hiding." Penny says, a determined look on her face.

"But…" Kayla starts but Penny stops her right away. "Please, we have no time for arguing. I'll be fine!"

And with that Penny jumps up and out of their hiding place. "Hey, I'm here!" Penny shouts and starts running away as fast as she can. After trying to jump over a giant root she loses balance and falls. By the time she is up on her feet, she is surrounded by enemies.

One of them steps forward and with a shock Penny realizes that it's Ben "You're coming with us Penny. Don't try to resist or else we'll hurt you." He says his voice cold and emotionless.

After hearing those words Penny's face becomes hard and she nods once stiffly.

"I'm just glad Kayla doesn't have to see this." Penny mutters under her breath. "I hope she managed to escape."

"What?" Ben wants to know.

"Nothing" Penny says while two agents handcuff and blindfold her.

"Let's go!" she hears Ben announce and someone pushes her forward. Without resisting Penny lets them lead her away.

After what feels like an eternity, they seem to open a door and push her inside a room while removing the blindfold. Penny squeezes her eyes shut to accommodate to the change of light, the door she has been pushed through closes behind her. Just as she realizes whose treehouse she is in the owner starts talking to her.

"Pretty Penny, I actually haven't assumed we'll see each other again so soon but well it is like it is." Talon says smirking, forcing up her chin with his hand so she has to look him into the eye.

Penny has felt calm and collected up until now but looking at his face she fells the urge to burst out into tears once again. She gulps down the tears that are welling up and hisses at Talon "What do you want? I thought you have no use for someone as pathetic as me in your army?" she tires to ignore the sting her own words cause.

Talon replies coolly "Well that's right but I realized I couldn't let you run lose either. I don't want you to plot something with your little friends." Talon says, his fingers following the line of her jaw.

"Looks like you need to stay here with me. And maybe I'll use one of my ticks on you…but I'd rather not…it's more entertaining if your prisoner wants to escape and does not do your every bidding." He says, letting go of her.

"Your disgusting!" Penny replies, trying to get away from Talon and glaring at him.

He is about to turn away from her when someone knocks on the door. "Yeah?" Talon replies and the door opens. Penny's heart hurts even more when she sees the visitors face. It is Jim.

"What do you have to report Jim? Talon asks matter-of-factly.

"Unfortunately, the other agents just told me that Kayla got away and I can't get a hold of Ben. He wanted to check up on the agents who were following her and now he is missing."

"What?" Talon snaps. "Am I surrounded by incompetent fools? Go and find Ben and don't you dare come back without him."

"What about the girl?" Jim asks.

"Forget about her, I think when we find Ben, he'll happily tell us where he thinks his girlfriend is hiding." Talon says laughing short and without amusement.

"Yes, and sorry again" Jim says, indicating a light bow.

With that said Jim leaves and Talon returns to his former business, writing something on his laptop.

Penny stays right where she is, not making a sound or moving a muscle and Talon completely ignores her.

After what feels like at least two hours there is a knock on the door once again. Talon looks up from his laptop and gets up to open the door.

"Ben where have you been?" he hisses at the young agent who just entered the treehouse. "I should get you fired right away and that would be the nice option" he growls.

Ben closes the door behind him "I'm very sorry boss, I was tracking down Kayla, we got her now, and I prepared a room for you prisoner. She can stay in her own treehouse we disconnected it from the rest of the treehouses, and I organized a patrol to keep an eye on her until you decide what you want to do with her", Ben lists the facts.

Talon raises his eyebrows. "I'm impressed, maybe I should make you second in command, you seem more capable than Jim. Well whatever, so you weren't really missing, that's perfect now take her away, her constant staring is annoying."

"See you soon Pretty Penny", Talon says smirking and waves her goodbye before returning to work on his laptop.

Ben takes Penny by the arm and shoves her out of Talons treehouse. Over the suspension bridge he leads her to her own treehouse and roughly pushes her inside. Penny loses balance and falls on her face because her hands are still tied to her back. She flinches with pain but Ben and the other agent who was already waiting for them only laugh. They shut the door and the tears Penny hold back for the last couple of hours start flowing.

How was all of this possible? Can it get any worse? She just wants to wake up so badly. She wants to know this is all a bad dream and nothing more and then snuggle up to Talon and let him comfort her.

But this isn't a dream it's reality and she has to pull it together or else there won't be any way out of this. Penny takes a few deep breaths to process what she just learned about Kayla and her own situation.

A plan starts forming in her mind. First of all she needs to somehow free her arms.

She begins to rotate and twist her hands so she can climb through her cuffed hands and get the cuffs to the front of her body.

While she struggles a small piece of paper falls to the ground. She frowns and manages to get herself up to a sitting position. Carefully, so no one from outside can see it, she unfolds the paper.

"It works. He's free. -K" the note reads. Penny stares at the note while starting to understand the meaning of it, new hope blossoming in her heart.


	16. Chapter 15 - Bad dreams?

**Sorry it's been a while but here is the next chaper. I hope you like it :)**

Could it be that the method, Kayla told her about, to free the agents of the ticks actually worked? Is Ben free? But why is he treating her that way? Hopefully to protect his cover…

A tumult outside her treehouse interrupts her train of thoughts. Penny hears hushed voices talking rapidly and tensed. Although she is not able to understand what they are saying, it seems like something has happened. Footsteps announce that someone is going to be in her treehouse soon, so she quickly hides the note she received in a crack in the floor. Seconds after, the door to her treehouse swings open once again and Ben steps inside, immediately shutting the door behind him.

He rushes to Penny's side, but Penny manages to get up on her feet and out of reach.

"It's fine, Penny. It's me…Ben" he tries to reassure her.

"How do I know this is not a trick?" Penny asks cautiously.

Ben starts to snicker a little. "Kayla knows you far too well", he says pulling out a piece of paper from his jacket and placing it on the floor in front of him. He then steps back to let Penny take a look.

Slowly without letting her guard down, Penny approaches the piece of paper on the floor. After reading the content she giggles a bit too. It says:

Seriously Penny,

we want to rescue you and you are giving us a hard time.

Literally the same thing happened at our mission in Berlin.

Our secret code word was 'porcupine'

\- K

The mission in Berlin seems so long ago but it ended just three months before they came to the special training camp. The only ones who knew this code word were Kayla and her because they made it up due to a little cute porcupine in the zoo, Penny remembers smiling.

"Hey, we got no time to reminisce about old times we need to get out of here!" Ben hisses, bringing Penny back to reality.

"Here I have the key to your cuffs", he says holding it up for her to see.

Penny quickly comes closer, letting him undo her cuffs.

Once they are open, Penny rubs her wrists to ease the pain of the handcuffs a little.

"How does your method work? Can we use it on all agents?" Penny asks Ben.

He looks around tensed. "First we need to get out of here. And no offence but you don't seem to be in the shape of your lifetime. So fighting our way through tons of agents is not an option."

Penny wants to protest and say that she is capable of fighting but realizes he is right. She had spent several hours standing in Talons treehouse without food or something to drink, she was treated rather roughly and also emotionally has gone through a lot the past hours. So she just quietly nods.

They snuck out unnoticed. After about five minutes when they reached a safe distance, they her angry shouting.

"I never knew Talon could shout this loud," Ben remarks but Penny only smiles mildly, her face showing she is more hurt than she would admit.

Ben lays his hand on her shoulder. "Come on, let's get you to Kayla, I'm sure she is able to cheer you up." Penny just shrugs her shoulders and lets Ben lead her to the secret hideout.

"Oh, Penny!" Kayla comes running out as soon as she sees them. "I'm so, so sorry this all happened. I don't know what you must be going through." She crushes Penny in a hug, who appreciates the roughness because otherwise she is sure she would have cried in front of all the remaining agents, and that is something she definitely doesn't want to do. She takes a few deep breaths to calm her nerves and pushes away from Kayla.

"I'm glad you're ok K" she smiles a little.

"And you found a way to get rid of the ticks?" she asks hopefully.

Kayla nods "Yes, we have but the first thing you do is get a shower and at least a few hours of sleep than we can tell you how we are going to get rid of those little robotic monsters."

Penny wants to protest but Kayla cuts her short. "Save your breath nothing you can say will change my mind."

Kayla takes Pennys arm and leads her through several doors to a bathroom.

"You can shower here, everything should be prepared. In case you need anything just call me a bedroom is right next door." She points to a wooden door at one side of the room.

Penny nods. "Thanks K".

"Always," she replies smiling and goes back the way they came from.

Penny looks around but is too tired to wonder where exactly this secret hideout is especially as it seems so spacious, so she just accepts the fact for now, takes a shower and afterwards falls into bed.

After what feels like a few minutes Penny is up and awake again. This time on her way towards all the voices, she skims her surroundings. Wherever this hideout is, it can't be underground, the hallway she walks through is full of windows and sunlight pours inside. So she has at least slept a few hours.

She walks to one of the windows and looks outside. "What?" she calls out surprised.

She hears someone snicker behind her and turns around in the blink of an eye, ready to fight.

Talon is leaning at the opposite side of the hallway, arms crossed, smiling at her.

"It's been a while Pretty Penny." His smile becomes more of a grotesque mask just for a moment than returning to the face she loves so much. She sakes her head wondering if it was just her imagination.

Nonetheless Penny tenses. "What are you doing here?" she asks.

"Telling you that this secret hideout is in the clouds. You never noticed it before because it is only for emergencies, it's a zeppelin with an impressive camouflage. It mirrors the sky making it almost impossible to see it if you are not searching for it."

Pennys eyes get wide and a glimmer of excitement shows in them.

Talon watches her amused. "Go on, take another look, I promise I won't attack you."

Penny scans her surroundings once again in case of anything or anyone she might have missed. When she sees or hears no one she cautiously turns her back towards Talon and looks out of the window.

She is sure they are the only ones here and in a one on one combat she is positive she can beat Talon quickly.

She studies the clouds and admires their beauty. "I knew you would like it," a voice near her ear whispers. Penny was so absorbed in watching the clouds and the sunlight that she didn't realise Talon being right behind her. How could she let her guard down with him. He is the enemy! She mentally slaps herself.

She wants to take a step away from him, but he lays his hands on her hips, softly pulling her back against his chest. Penny's eyes well up with tears and she struggles to get free. "Why?" she questions Talon. "A few hours ago, you treated me like I don't exist and now this?" she gestures at his arms around her tummy.

"Imagine what we could be like together, unstoppable, perfect…" Talon purrs into her ear without answering her question.

"But…" Penny starts, more tears flowing down her cheek.

"No buts…I love you and I want to be with you." Talon says kissing some of the tears away.

The comfortable and familiar feeling of being in Talon's arms weakens her resolve.

"I…" she starts, then Kayla comes around the corner, shock in her eyes at the scene that unfolds in front of her.

"NOW" Talon shouts and Jim comes around the other corner, running towards Kayla and together with her jumping through one window.

"NOOOO" Penny screams, sitting up in her bed breathing hard. "It was just a dream" she tries to calm herself. "Kayla?" she calls nonetheless. "KAYLA?"

Her friend comes running in, seeing Penny with tears on her cheeks and hugging her. "Everything is fine, it was just a dream. We will be fine." She assures Penny stroking her back to calm her down.


End file.
